New England Patriots
Sharp Soccer Evaluation has the Patriots with the Twelfth-easiest schedule within the NFL this season.
In relation to bracing for some regression for the Patriots in the course of the 2026 season, most of these fears stem from an anticipated harder street again to the playoffs.
The 2025 Patriots may need exceeded loads of expectations below the management of Mike Vrabel and the expansion of Drake Maye right into a reliable MVP candidate.
However, New England additionally benefited from a lightweight schedule — with the Patriots kicking over a number of tomato cans en path to a 14-3 report.
Past the Patriots placing the remainder of the league on discover with their stunning Tremendous Bowl run, New England will face a frightening slate of opponents in 2026, largely because of their standing because the reigning AFC East champions.
For a lot of the offseason, the writing was on the wall that New England was going to be saddled with one of the toughest schedules in the league, with the Patriots set to battle in opposition to eight groups that made the playoffs the earlier 12 months.
Whereas the NFL gained’t announce full schedules for the 2026 season till Thursday, we no less than know who the Patriots will play subsequent season:
Residence
- Buffalo Payments
- New York Jets
- Miami Dolphins
- Denver Broncos
- Inexperienced Bay Packers
- Las Vegas Raiders
- Minnesota Vikings
- Pittsburgh Steelers
Away
- Buffalo Payments
- New York Jets
- Miami Dolphins
- Kansas Metropolis Chiefs
- Chicago Bears
- Detroit Lions
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Seattle Seahawks
- Jacksonville Jaguars
However, after among the mud has settled throughout one other busy NFL offseason, may the Patriots’ once-imposing slate of video games really be a bit simpler than initially projected?
Sharp Soccer Evaluation appears to assume so.
As famous by Jacob Robinson of The Athletic on the publication’s NFL publication, the Patriots are projected to have a positive — if not pedestrian — schedule subsequent season when factoring in projected win totals and the standard of competitors they’re set to face.
These strength-of-schedule rankings had been calculated by Sharp Football Analysis — which has the Patriots ranked with the Twelfth-easiest schedule within the league coming into the 2026 marketing campaign.
Sharp has the Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and New York Jets with the 5 best schedules in 2026, whereas the Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers, Dallas Cowboys, and Los Angeles Rams have the 5 hardest schedules.
In line with Sharp, simply two of the eight groups with the hardest 2025 schedules made the playoffs: the Texans and Rams.
As AFC East champions, the Patriots are actually scheduled to face a number of 2025 division champs subsequent fall — together with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Seattle Seahawks.
The Seahawks beat the Patriots in Tremendous Bowl LX and are as soon as once more anticipated to be a high contender in 2026, whereas the Jags gained 14 video games final 12 months.
Together with two troublesome divisional battles with Josh Allen and the Payments, the Patriots will tackle each the AFC West and the NFC North in 2026, which can embody a couple of extra daunting opponents just like the Broncos, Packers, Bears, Lions, Chargers, and Chiefs.
Nevertheless, matchups in opposition to anticipated cellar-dwelling opponents just like the Jets (twice), Dolphins (twice), and Raiders may need helped New England’s strength-of-schedule metrics coming into a brand new season of soccer.
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