The caveat before we get started with this exercise is to point out Mark Craig’s very good piece last week about how the strength of schedule of NFL teams going into a season is not a good indicator of how that team will fare — or even how hard their schedule will really be.
The NFL is a league of change, with half of all playoff teams being displaced routinely from year to year. And because there are precious few games, the difference between 9-7 and 7-9 is pretty tiny. One bounce here, a missed kick there, and the fortunes of a team and their seeming outlook going into the next season can totally change.