5 toughest NFL schedules in 2016

Looking at each of the 32 NFL team’s schedules for 2016, these five teams have the toughest scheduling breaks of anybody in the National Football League.

Well before the start of every NFL season, fans already know who their favorite team will play in 14 of their 16 games. They will play every team in their own division twice (home and away), and they will play every team in two other divisions, one in the AFC and one in the NFC, once. The inter-divisional games are on a three-year rotation and the inter-conference games are on a four-year rotation.

The remaining two games are determined by the divisional standings at the end of each season. If a team finishes in second place in its own division one year, it will play two second place teams in from the two divisions in its conference it doesn’t already face in inter-divisional play.

But while the scheduling rules are well established, the divisional rotation can make for some incredibly easy and incredibly difficult slates of games. Usually, strength of schedule for NFL teams fluctuates from .420 winning percentage (soft) to around .550 winning percent (hard).

With the slate of games already decided for the 2016 NFL season, let’s take a look at the teams with the five toughest schedules in the National Football League. Can any one of these five teams overcome a brutal regular season schedule and make it into the NFL Playoffs?

Next: 5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers