I have posted the Strength of Schedule information, but I don’t believe I’ve broken it down yet by halves. That is, which teams and offenses will benefit by playing their easy games at the start of the season? And which potentially could get off to slow starts because of difficult schedules.

Some like to look at wins and loss. Others like to look at points allowed by defenses. I will offer both.

Starting with the wins. This is created by using the win-loss records of each team from last year. You plug those records into this year’s schedule, and it provides an idea of what each team schedule looks like.

If everybody plays just the way they did last year, the Eagles, Packers and Washington will have the easiest schedules in the first half of the season. The Bucs, Falcons, Chargers and Broncos will play the hardest schedules.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE, Points (first 8 games)
TeamWLPctFinal 8
Philadelphia4979.383• 60-68
Green Bay5177.39852-76
Washington5276.406• 68-60
Tennessee5573.430• 71-57
Miami5573.430• 67-61
Baltimore5573.43063-65
Chicago5672.43852-76
Dallas5870.45354-74
Cincinnati5969.46151-77
Oakland6068.469• 85-43
Cleveland6068.46960-68
Detroit6266.48456-72
Jacksonville6365.49262-66
Indianapolis6365.49256-72
NY Giants6365.49255-73
NY Jets6464.50066-62
Houston6464.50063-65
Minnesota6464.50062-66
St. Louis6563.50866-62
Arizona6563.50861-67
Kansas City6761.52376-52
New England6761.52355-73
Buffalo6761.52355-73
Seattle6860.53176-52
Pittsburgh6860.53150-78
New Orleans7058.54777-51
Carolina7157.55571-57
San Francisco7355.57066-62
Denver7850.60973-55
San Diego7850.60964-64
Atlanta8048.62578-50
Tampa Bay8048.62575-53

For the final column, those are the win-loss records for the final eight games for each team. If a team’s schedule is 10-plus games harder in the second half of the season, I’ve tagged it with a black ball. The Raiders lead the way on that front, with their schedule going from one of the easier ones in the first half of the season (60-68) to the No. 1 hardest in November/December (85-43).

If a team’s schedule gets 10-plus games easier in the schedule, those figures are in bold. The Steelers and Chargers have the biggest positive swings there.

Doing the same kind of thing only using points, the numbers indicate the Ravens, Eagles, Packers and Washington should face the weakest defenses in the first half of the season. Note that three of those teams were the top 3 in the other chart as well.

The Bucs, Falcons, Broncos and Chargers project to face the hardest defenses in their first eight games. And those are the same four who were on the bottom in the first chart.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE, Points (first 8 games)
Team1-89-16Diff
Baltimore25.621.7• -4.0
Philadelphia25.623.2• -2.4
Green Bay25.324.1-1.2
Washington24.923.3-1.7
Dallas24.125.71.6
St. Louis23.921.7• -2.2
Chicago23.925.01.2
Miami23.922.0-1.9
Minnesota23.723.8.0
Kansas City23.421.2• -2.1
Tennessee23.321.8-1.5
Oakland23.120.2• -2.9
Cincinnati22.925.12.2
Detroit22.824.31.5
Cleveland22.724.01.3
Houston22.723.1.5
Arizona22.621.6-1.0
NY Jets22.620.3• -2.3
Indianapolis22.524.11.6
Jacksonville22.422.7.2
NY Giants22.324.11.8
New Orleans22.121.7-.5
Pittsburgh21.624.73.1
New England21.622.81.2
Carolina21.521.6.1
San Francisco21.521.4-.1
Seattle21.321.4.1
Buffalo21.223.52.3
San Diego21.221.6.5
Denver21.221.0-.1
Atlanta20.921.2.3
Tampa Bay20.321.1.8

As with the first chart, when a schedule gets a lot harder in the second half of the year, you see the dreaded black dot. Six teams project to face defenses allowing at least 2 fewer points per game, on average. That includes the Ravens and Eagles, who have the easiest first-half schedules.

Only three teams project to face defenses allowing over 2 more points in the second half of the season, so I tossed the 4th-place team in there as well (the Giants, with their opponents allowing an average of 1.8 more points.

—Ian Allan