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NFL strength of schedule rankings: Which teams have the easiest and hardest schedules in 2026?

Nbcwashington · 🇮🇳 public India · · 746 words · By Max Molski
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What to know about NFL strength of schedule rankings: Which teams have the easiest and hardest schedules in 2026?

Football fans are days away from finding out the full NFL schedule for 2026, but some teams already have a tougher 17-game slate than others.

Claims checked 10
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center75%
Right25%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Football fans are days away from finding out the full NFL schedule for 2026, but some teams already have a tougher 17-game slate than others.

Why it matters

The NFL schedule is formatted in a way that let teams know their 2026 opponents when the 2025 regular season ended.

Common ground

On top of usual divisional rivalries and other rotation aspects featured in the annual schedule, there is one factor that generally hurts contenders while exciting fans.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/sports/nfl/nfl-strength-of-schedule-rankings-…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 10 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

info Single Source 3
verified Verified 3
check_circle Corroborated 2
help Insufficient Evidence 2
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Claim 1: “the full 2026 schedule coming Thursday night”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web search results confirm the NFL 2026 schedule is being released on Thursday, May 14.
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web search NEUTRAL — NFL Schedule Release Week: ESPN, NFL Network to air SportsCenter Special Presented by Nationwide: 2026 NFL Schedule Release on Thursday. 10 hours ago. By Lily Blum.
https://news.google.com/stories/CAAqNggKIjBDQklTSGpvSmMzUnZj…
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web search NEUTRAL — As football fans anxiously await Thursday’s release of the full NFL 2026 regular-season schedule, it’s sometimes forgotten that we already know each team’s schedule for 2026.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7262821/2026/05/11/nfl-sche…
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web search NEUTRAL — The NFL's annual schedule release will take place on Thursday, May 14, creating a road map to Super Bowl LXI at Inglewood, Calif.The 2026 season is scheduled to begin on a Wednesday when the Super Bow…
https://www.australianherald.com/news/279039176/nfl-schedule…
info
Claim 2: “the Cleveland Browns have the easiest schedule in 2026 with a .429 winning percentage.”
SINGLE SOURCE
While the claim is specific, the provided evidence for this index consists of general team pages and tournament results without the specific .429 winning percentage confirmation.
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web search NEUTRAL — The complete 2026 NFL season schedule on ESPN. Includes game times, TV listings and ticket information for all NFL games.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/schedule
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web search NEUTRAL — Follow the 2025–26 NFL Tournament for live scores, results, standings, brackets and upcoming games with real-time updates all season long.
https://nflplayoffpass.com/tournament/nfl-2025-2026/
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web search NEUTRAL — Find news, video, standings, scores and schedule information for the Cleveland Browns.The official source for NFL news, video highlights, fantasy football, game-day coverage, schedules, stats, scores …
https://www.nfl.com/teams/cleveland-browns/
verified
Claim 3: “The Chicago Bears have the toughest roadmap entering this season, as their 2026 opponents had a combined .550 winning percentage in 2025.”
VERIFIED
Sporting News explicitly states the Chicago Bears have the toughest 2026 schedule based on opponents' 2025 winning percentage of .550.
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web search NEUTRAL — 1. Chicago Bears. Opponents' 2025 winning percentage: .550. SOS based on 2026 projected Vegas win totals: 6th-hardest.Based on projected win totals for 2026, the Cardinals actually have the projected …
https://www.sportingnews.com/au/nfl/news/toughest-nfl-schedu…
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web search NEUTRAL — Welcome to the official YouTube page of the Chicago Bears.Check out this cinematic recap featuring the best moments from the Bears' 2025 season.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP0Cdc6moLMyDJiO0s-yhbQ
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web search NEUTRAL — The complete 2026 NFL season schedule on ESPN. Includes game times, TV listings and ticket information for all NFL games.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/schedule
verified
Claim 4: “The New England Patriots... have the sixth-toughest strength of schedule in 2026.”
VERIFIED
NBC explicitly states that the New England Patriots have the sixth-toughest strength of schedule in 2026.
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web search NEUTRAL — The New England Patriots, who capitalized on a weak regular season schedule and reached the Super Bowl last season, have the sixth-toughest strength of schedule in 2026.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/nfl/nfl-strength-of-s…
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web search NEUTRAL — Ranking 2026 NFL strength of schedule for all 32 teams easiest to hardest, based on projected win totals for every opponent from Vegas oddsmakers.
https://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/analysis/nfl-strength-…
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web search NEUTRAL — With the NFL officially confirming the 2026 schedule release for Thursday, May 14 at 8:00 PM ET, fans of the New England Patriots are bracing for the road ahead. While specific dates and kickoff times…
https://sportsbrackets.net/2026/05/08/2026-new-england-patri…
info
Claim 5: “The Miami Dolphins (.542), Arizona Cardinals (.538), Green Bay Packers (.538) and Kansas City Chiefs (.536) join the Bears in the top-five most difficult schedules for 2026.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The web search results for this specific claim returned dictionary definitions of the word 'top' rather than NFL schedule data.
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web search NEUTRAL — Definition of top noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/eng…
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web search NEUTRAL — TOP definition: 1. the highest place or part: 2. the flat upper surface of something: 3. in baseball, the first…. Learn more.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/top
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web search NEUTRAL — A top is a piece of clothing that you wear on the upper half of your body, for example, a blouse or shirt.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/top
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Claim 6: “Caleb Williams and Co. will have to play a first-place schedule in 2026 after winning the NFC North in Ben Johnson's first year as head coach.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm Ben Johnson was hired as head coach in January 2025 and the Bears won the NFC North in his first season.
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web search NEUTRAL — Chicago Bears clinched the NFC's No. 2 seed despite losing to Detroit, but coach Ben Johnson was furious with his offense for being scoreless.The Bears won the NFC North despite finishing 2-4 in divis…
https://rollingout.com/2026/01/05/night-where-the-bears-won-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Ben Johnson’s first season as head coach of the Chicago Bears has been a dramatic turnaround. After being hired in January 2025, Chicago finished the regular season 11-5 and won the NFC North, its bes…
https://www.thebiglead.com/caleb-williams-unexpected-week-18…
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web search NEUTRAL — Ben Johnson Stocked Bears’ Skill-Position Groups With Talent in First Year as Head Coach. Bears TE Colston Loveland.The Bears got off to a rocky start, losing the first two games of the season to NFC …
https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-annou…
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Claim 7: “Three games on each team’s schedule are based solely on where it placed within its division”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding the specific number of games based on divisional placement.
verified
Claim 8: “The New England Patriots, who capitalized on a weak regular season schedule and reached the Super Bowl last season, have the sixth-toughest strength of schedule in 2026.”
VERIFIED
NBC reports that the New England Patriots capitalized on a weak regular season schedule and reached the Super Bowl last season.
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web search NEUTRAL — Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, aggregated from sources all over the world by Google News.
https://news.google.com/
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web search NEUTRAL — President Donald Trump has tried to will an agreement into existence. Instead, he’s made it abundantly clear to everyone that he’s desperate for a deal. The United States waited 10 days for Iran’s...
https://www.cnn.com/
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web search NEUTRAL — Older Americans say it’s a good time to find a job. Younger people aren’t buying it, new poll finds
https://apnews.com/
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Claim 9: “Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis offered a much different strength of schedule outlook for the upcoming season [using 2026 projected win totals from Vegas oddsmakers]”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found after searching for Warren Sharp's 2026 projections.
info
Claim 10: “Alongside the Browns for the top-five easiest schedules in 2026 are the New Orleans Saints (.434), Cincinnati Bengals (.450), Indianapolis Colts (.465) and Atlanta Falcons.”
SINGLE SOURCE
One source mentions the Saints as having one of the easiest schedules, but the full list of five teams with their specific percentages is not corroborated by multiple independent sources in the provided evidence.
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web search NEUTRAL — The Saints entered 2025 with the second-easiest schedule in the NFL and will do so again after taking advantage of it down the stretch and beating expectations with a six-win season.
https://www.sportingnews.com/au/nfl/news/easiest-nfl-schedul…
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web search NEUTRAL — The complete 2026 NFL season schedule on ESPN. Includes game times, TV listings and ticket information for all NFL games.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/schedule
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web search NEUTRAL — Get the full schedule for the 2025 NFL season, including matchups, dates, times and TV and ticket information.
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/schedule/
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.