Alright, so I wanted to figure out which NFL teams have the toughest and easiest schedules this year. You know, just for fun and maybe a little fantasy football research. Here’s how I went about it:
Figuring Out the Opponents
First, I needed to know who each team was playing. This part was pretty straightforward. I just looked up the 2024 NFL schedule. Every team plays 17 games, and who they play is based on a set formula – division rivals twice, some teams from other divisions, and a few based on last year’s standings. No biggie there, did this part pretty fast.
Getting Last Year’s Records
Next, I needed to get the win-loss records from last season for all 32 teams. I found a simple table online that gave me that from last year’s regular season . Made a simple list and double-checked it just to be sure.
Calculating Opponents’ Combined Win Percentage
Now for the slightly trickier, but still not hard step. I went team by team and added up all their opponents’ wins from last year. Then, I divided that total number of wins by the total number of games those opponents played (which is always 272 in a normal 17 game, 32 team season, minus any game that was tied).This gave me each team’s opponents’ combined win percentage. Easy peasy
- Example: Let’s say Team A plays 17 games against teams that, combined, had 150 wins last season. I’d do 150 / 272 = 0.551. That .551 is the opponents’ win percentage.
Ranking Strength of Schedule
Finally, I simply made the list of my numbers, sorting all 32 teams from the highest opponents’ win percentage (toughest schedule) to the lowest (easiest schedule). Boom! Done. Took the numbers and put them from largest to smallest.
It’s not a perfect system, of course. Teams change a lot from year to year, but it’s a good starting point to get a general idea. It was interesting to see how it all shook out!