3 teams who got screwed the most in the 2024 NFL schedule

The NFL Schedule has officially been released and there is all sorts of analysis going on about things such as primetime games, international matchups, holiday games and more. While the NFL tries very hard to satisfy all of their team's various requests in terms of how games are scheduled, it simply isn't possible for everyone to get everything they want.

Whether it is short weeks, the number of times a team has a multi-game road trip, or just the sequencing of opponents there will always be something to complain about for NFL teams when it comes to their schedule. These three teams, however, have a big reason to gripe compared to the rest of the league.

Buffalo Bills

A perennial contender often gets challenged based on the NFL's scheduling model but few teams have a more difficult slate than Buffalo does. Thanks to an unlucky alignment of divisional rotations, the Bills are one of just two teams who have to face all four conference championship teams from a year ago (Kansas City, Detroit, Baltimore and San Francisco).

Five of Buffalo's first eight games are also on the road, including a three-game road trip between Weeks 4-6 to Baltimore, Houston and New York. There are also four prime time games in the Bills' first six weeks, which can make it harder for Buffalo to get into an established routine since two of those games fall on Monday night and another lands on Thursday in Week 2.

The sheer number of strong teams that Buffalo will face could be a challenge for a re-tooling roster that lost many big names over the course of the offseason. Don't be shocked if the way the schedule is stacked makes life much harder for the Bills to defend their AFC East crown.

Cleveland Browns

An 11-win campaign in 2023 helped Cleveland reach the postseason on the strength of an elite defense but the reward the Browns got was a first-round playoff loss and the most difficult regular season schedule based on opponent's winning percentage in 2023. To make matters worse, the home/road split of the schedule is way out of whack as the Browns are just one of four teams to be assigned a three-game road trip this season.

Five of Cleveland's final eight games also come away from home, which isn't ideal for a squad trying to make a postseason push. The biggest problem is the overall difficulty of the schedule, however, which comes from playing in the loaded AFC North and drawing matchups against the NFC East and AFC West.

NFL.com's Gennaro Felice notes that of the last seven teams to enter the year with the most difficult schedule in the league, five missed the postseason entirely and the other two failed to advance out of the Wild Card round. Given the uncertain state of the Browns' quarterback play the odds appear stacked against them defying historical precedent with their slate.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Like their AFC North rivals, Pittsburgh also has to deal with an incredibly tough schedule. The Steelers' opponents had a winning percentage of .533 in 2023, the third-toughest slate in the league, but the NFL did Pittsburgh no favors with the sequence of their games.

Pittsburgh won't get to enjoy its typical home-field advantage much in the early going as they play their first two games of the season on the road and only have one home game in the month of September. The rugged AFC North games are also all backloaded for the Steelers, who don't play their first division game until Week 11 and spend six of their final eight games in a meat grinder against their bitter rivals.

The other two games in that stretch involve a cross-state rivalry with Philadelphia and a short turnaround to host the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day. Pittsburgh needs to get its work done early if Mike Tomlin hopes to extend his streak of non-winning seasons for another year.