The Lions have one of the toughest schedules and belong to a highly competitive division!
Mandatory Credit: Imagn Images
Kickoff for the new season is just a couple of days away, which means meaningful football is right around the corner. But before we get ready to be enthralled by the opening games of the 2025-26 NFL regular season, it would be a good idea to check the strength of schedule for all teams for the upcoming season.
The strength of schedule gives fans a general overview of how a team’s season could potentially shape up. Of course, anything can happen in sports, and there is no blueprint that ensures how the season will play out for sure.
Nevertheless, we can still have a look at how difficult or easy a path all teams in the league are bound to have throughout the 17-game regular season, which will give us a fairly decent idea of which teams could make the postseason in a few months’ time.
Giants, Bears, and Lions Have the Toughest Strength of Schedule for the 2025–26 NFL Season
Heading into the 2025-26 NFL season, the New York Giants have the toughest strength of schedule this year at .574. Some of the top teams the Giants will be facing this season include the Vikings, Packers, Chiefs, Lions, and Chargers. And that’s not to mention the four games they will be playing against their NFC East rivals, the Eagles and Commanders.
The next toughest strength of schedule belongs to NFC North teams, the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions, both of whom have a .571 strength of schedule.
The Bears have 6 tough divisional games against the Lions, Packers, and Vikings, along with other top teams such as the Ravens, Eagles, and Commanders.
As for the Lions, they have 4 games against the Vikings and Packers from the NFC North, as well as the Buccaneers, Eagles, Commanders, Ravens, Chiefs, and the Rams.
When it comes to the early 2025 schedule, not all teams are equally set up to succeed.
These five teams could stumble and get off to slow starts. ⤵️
49ers, Saints, and Patriots among the Teams with Easiest Strength of Schedule for 2025–26 NFL Season
Looking at the other side of the spectrum, the San Francisco 49ers have the easiest regular season according to their strength of schedule at .415. The 49ers have 2 games against divisional rivals, the Cardinals, who finished 1 game under .500 last season. Moreover, they also play weaker teams such as the Panthers, Jaguars, Titans, Falcons, Bears, Saints, Colts, Giants, and the Browns.
The New Orleans Saints, at .419, are next with 4 games against the Panthers and Falcons from the NFC South, along with other easier teams such as the Cardinals, Giants, Patriots, 49ers, Jets, Dolphins, and Titans.
To round up the bottom three, we have the New England Patriots with a .429 strength of schedule heading into the new season. The Patriots will play 4 games against divisional opponents, the Jets and the Dolphins. They will also take on other weaker teams like the Titans, Saints, Falcons, Browns, Panthers, Giants, and Raiders.
Two weeks to go before we kick off the season with the NFL’s biggest rivalry. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/0nYjZIYqA2
Predictions for 2025–26 NFL Season according to the Strength of Schedule
The strength of schedule is just a basic idea of what teams will have to go through in the 17-week regular season grind in order to make the playoffs. However, football is a team sport, and as the saying goes, “on any given Sunday”, it is difficult to predict the outcome of games.
That said, here are 5 potential outcomes based on the strength of schedule for all 32 teams for the 2025-26 NFL season.
49ers Are Almost Guaranteed to Make the Playoffs
Having the easiest schedule in the league is definitely an advantage, particularly for a perennial playoff contender such as the 49ers. Despite the team having lost several key players and with injury concerns at the receiver position, they should still find a way to make the postseason.
Lions Could Struggle to Make the Postseason
Detroit has one of the hardest schedules in the league this year, and if they get off to a poor start, they would be facing severe competition from the Vikings and Packers in the NFC North.
Bengals Could Top the AFC North
The Cincinnati Bengals will be facing some decent opponents this season, but their most crucial games will come against the Ravens and Steelers within their division. However, they have got all the key pieces back on the roster, and have the easiest strength of schedule in the AFC North.
Bills Looking Good to Win the AFC East for the Sixth Year Running
Buffalo has been the best team in the AFC East for the past five seasons, with neither of the remaining teams threatening them too much. Add to that the fact that the Bills have a comparatively easier schedule, and that should be enough for them to claim the AFC East crown once again.
Cowboys May Miss the Postseason Altogether
The loss of Micah Parsons on defense is sure to sting the Cowboys as a whole. The morale of the team may also be down, and in addition to that, they have a tough schedule ahead, starting with a week 1 encounter against the defending champions, the Philadelphia Eagles.
The strength of schedule in the NFL is the metric by which the difficulty of a team’s opponents is measured by virtue of their win-loss record from the previous season.
2. How is Strength of Schedule Calculated?
The strength of schedule for NFL teams is calculated by adding the combined winning percentage of all 17 opponents from the previous season and then dividing it by 17 to get the average winning percentage of opponents.
3. What is the Packers’ Strength of Schedule for the 2025-26 Season?
The Green Bay Packers have a .557 strength of schedule for this season.
4. Which teams have the easiest and hardest Strengths of Schedule for the 2025-26 Season?
The San Francisco 49ers, with a .415, have the easiest schedule for the upcoming season, while the hardest schedule belongs to the Giants at .574.
I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!
NFL 
nfl 
