Every NFL team’s 2026 strength of schedule, from Bears’ brutal run to Browns’ lazy river

Every NFL team’s 2026 strength of schedule from Bears’ brutal run to Browns’ lazy river

The 2026 NFL schedule is nearly complete. While we don’t know when each team will play, we do know who’ll they’ll face across the 17 games that carve a path to Super Bowl 61.

The league’s scheduling process leaves six games against division opponents, four against opponents from a division in the opposite conference, four against opponents from a division within the same conference, two against teams in the same conference that finished in the same place in their respective divisions and one from the opposite conference who finished in the same place in their division (a weird rotation made possible by an unbalanced 17-game schedule). That leaves us with a dense list of matchups and where they’ll take place, even if the when is a mystery.

Using that, we can calculate which teams will likely have the easiest paths to the postseason and who’ll have to overcome a few more hurdles to get there.

If you’re ranking teams based on how their opponents did in 2025, you get a strength of schedule that shakes out like this:

1. Chicago Bears: 0.55
2. Miami Dolphins: 0.542
3. Arizona Cardinals: 0.538
4. Green Bay Packers: 0.538
5. Kansas City Chiefs: 0.536
6. New England Patriots: 0.531
7. Las Vegas Raiders: 0.529
8. Buffalo Bills: 0.528
9. Los Angeles Chargers: 0.522
10. Carolina Panthers: 0.521
11. Minnesota Vikings: 0.519
12. New York Jets: 0.517
13. Los Angeles Rams: 0.516
14. Seattle Seahawks: 0.514
15. Denver Broncos: 0.512
16. Washington Commanders: 0.502
17. New York Giants: 0.498
18. San Francisco 49ers: 0.497
19. Pittsburgh Steelers: 0.495
20. Dallas Cowboys: 0.493
21. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 0.491
22. Jacksonville Jaguars: 0.49
23. Philadelphia Eagles: 0.481
24. Baltimore Ravens: 0.479
25. Tennessee Titans: 0.476
26. Houston Texans: 0.474
27. Detroit Lions: 0.467
28. Atlanta Falcons: 0.465
29. Indianapolis Colts: 0.465
30. Cincinnati Bengals: 0.45
31. New Orleans Saints: 0.434
32. Cleveland Browns: 0.429

If you’re looking for a more forward-looking approach to strength of schedule, you can break down each team’s schedule based on their projected win totals in sportsbooks across America. Those factor in future outlooks based on offseason additions and losses, and while they’re educated guesses on how a team will perform, they aren’t completely beholden to 2025 outcomes.

If you break down each team’s strength of schedule by how bettors think each of their opponents will do this fall, you get a fairly different lineup:

1. Arizona Cardinals
2. Miami Dolphins
3. Carolina Panthers
4. Dallas Cowboys
5. Los Angeles Rams
6. Chicago Bears
7. Houston Texans
8. Washington Commanders
9. New York Giants
10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
11. Seattle Seahawks
12. Los Angeles Chargers
13. Atlanta Falcons
14. Las Vegas Raiders
15. Pittsburgh Steelers
16. Green Bay Packers
17. Minnesota Vikings
18. Jacksonville Jaguars
19. Buffalo Bills
20. Tennessee Titans
21. New England Patriots
22. Denver Broncos
23. Kansas City Chiefs
24. Indianapolis Colts
25. San Francisco 49ers
26. Philadelphia Eagles
27. Baltimore Ravens
28. New York Jets
29. Cleveland Browns
30. Cincinnati Bengals
31. New Orleans Saints
32. Detroit Lions

It’s a tougher scene for the Cowboys, certainly. And the poor, poor Cardinals will at least have a chance to draft a franchise quarterback after wading into the lion’s den with a quarterback room of Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew II and Carson Beck. But it’s great news for a Dan Campbell revival in Michigan or for “Tyler Shough, Playoff Quarterback” to become a true statement.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: 2026 NFL schedule: Strength of schedule for 32 teams, from Browns to Bears