The Patriots Have An Easy Path Back To The Super Bowl
On April 17, the NFL officially released its schedule for the upcoming season, and can you guess what team's is considered the easiest? The New England Patriots! After beating the Los Angeles Rams in February, New England officially has been handed the path of least resistance back to the big show in 2019.
Now, to be clear, this isn't the NFL purposely being nice. There is a system every season that determines what teams will match up against each other the following season. And of course, six match ups are always guaranteed; two each against the Dolphins, Jets, and Bills.
To determine what team has the "easiest" schedule, NFL analysts use the combined winning percentages of opponents during the previous season. Obviously, it would be impossible to try and predict how teams will perform the next; some will rise and some will fall. And at the end of the day, the Patriots will likely be one of the last two teams standing.
On the flip side, the team that got the hardest schedule is arguably the soon to be Las Vegas Raiders. Although their strength of schedule isn't brutal, they will travel more than 35,000 miles during the season and host a "home game" in London.
