2023 NFL Season: Looking at strength of schedule rankings
We finally know the NFL schedule for the 2023 season. Let’s take a deeper look at it and the strength of schedule rankings. Strength of schedule is a very important aspect of the season to look at. Typically, the better a team finishes in their division, the tougher schedule they’ll will have.
Also, depending on what kind of division a team plays in, that could lend itself to a tougher or easier schedule. The toughest schedules in the league for the 2023 season are no surprise, as are the easiest schedules.
Let’s look into this some more.
2023 NFL Season: Looking at strength of schedule rankings
CBSsports.com has a strength of schedule list on their website.
The toughest schedule in the NFL for the 2023 season belongs to the defending NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles. This is based on the winning percentage of the 2022 NFL teams. Their opponents’ combined 2022 winning percentage is .566.
The second toughest schedule belongs to the Miami Dolphins, at .554, and the third toughest schedule in the NFL belongs to the New England Patriots at .549. For this year, the AFC East and NFC East have the toughest slates of schedules.
All of the NFC East teams rank inside the top eight in the strength of schedule rankings for 2023. All of the AFC East teams rank inside the top seven among the toughest schedules in the NFL for the 2023 season.
For teams who are needing to win now like the Patriots and Jets, this is terrible news.
If we go to the very bottom, we’ll see that the Atlanta Falcons have the easiest schedule in the NFL for the 2023 season. The New Orleans Saints have the second easiest schedule. The winning percentages among those team’s schedules are .417 and .427, respectively.
This is great news for both the Falcons and Saints, who are both facing a virtual win-now season and also have the luxury of playing in a very weak division.
The AFC South is also represented at the bottom of these rankings. The Texans, Colts, and Titans are all 28th or lower in the NFL for the 2023 season.
Stuck in the middle are the Kansas City Chiefs, coming in at the 16th toughest schedule in the NFL for the 2023 season. Somehow, they have the easiest schedule in the AFC West even though they were a first place team in 2022.
We’ll see what happens in what is going to be an insane 2023 season.