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Fresh Look at Strength of Schedule

Of course, this all comes with the caveat of what happened in 2019 might not mean anything for 2020. For proof, just look at last year's Packers.
Bill Huber|
Fresh Look at Strength of Schedule
Fresh Look at Strength of Schedule

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers face a middle-of-the-pack strength of schedule, its games against powerhouses New Orleans and San Francisco countered by two games against three-win Detroit.

Another way to look at strength of schedule is to look at the out-of-division games. Howard Balzer of SI.com’s Arizona Cardinals site did just that. And that’s where the potential challenge of Green Bay’s 2020 schedule comes to light. The NFC North teams this season will face the NFC South and AFC South. Plus, as the first-place team in the NFC North, Green Bay will play the first-place teams in the NFC East and NFC West.

Looking purely at the 10 out-of-division games, the Packers face the league’s seventh-toughest schedule. Here is how that shakes out:

1. Philadelphia .591

2. New England .584

3. Kansas City .563

4. Houston .553

5. New Orleans .547

6. Buffalo .541

7. Green Bay .538

8. Dallas .534

9. Atlanta .528

10. San Francisco .525

11. N.Y. Giants .522

T-12. Denver .519

T-12. Minnesota .519

14. N.Y. Jets .516

15. Tennessee .509

16. Baltimore .500

17. Las Vegas .494

T-18. Indianapolis .491

T-18. Tampa Bay .491

20. Miami .484

T-21. Chicago .481

T-21. Washington .481

23. Seattle .469

24. Jacksonville .466

T-25. Carolina .463

T-25. L.A. Chargers .463

T-27. L.A. Rams .456

T-27. Pittsburgh .456

29. Detroit .453

30. Cleveland .438

31. Arizona .416

32. Cincinnati .413

For Green Bay, clearly the toughest stretch comes after the bye week, with games at Tampa Bay (with Tom Brady leading what could be the best offense in the NFL) and Houston (back-to-back AFC South champions), home against Minnesota (which will be coming off its bye) and a short-week showdown at San Francisco.

Of course, all of this comes with the caveat that what happened in 2019 might mean nothing in 2020. At this point last year, Green Bay was slated to face the league’s 14th-toughest schedule – right about where it’s at for 2020 (see accompanying video). In reality, the Packers would up facing the league’s easiest schedule, with their 16 games coming against teams that won a league-low 115 games. That works out to a record of about 7-9.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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