Chiefs Have 17th Toughest Schedule in 2009
by Joel Thorman on Feb 3, 2009 5:04 PM CST
in 2009 Kansas City Chiefs Offseason
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PrintDead last in the 2nd worst division in the NFL. Dead last in the entire AFC. 3rd worst team in all of the NFL.
All that equates to the 17th toughest schedule in 2009 for the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Chiefs 2009 opponents were determined back in December. Now we can see how the strength of schedule stacks up since the Super Bowl is over with and all the numbers are final.
Here is the 2009 NFL strength of schedule from toughest to weakest (numbers are based on opponents 2008 record):
- Miami Dolphins
- Carolina Panthers
- New England Patriots
- Atlanta Falcons
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Buffalo Bills
- New York Jets
- New Orleans Saints
- Philadelphia Eagles
- New York Giants
- Dallas Cowboys
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Indianapolis Colts
- Tennessee Titans
- Houston Texans
- Washington Redskins
- Kansas City Chiefs
- San Diego Chargers
- Denver Broncos
- Oakland Raiders
- Detroit Lions
- Cincinnati Bengals
- St. Louis Rams
- Seattle Seahawks
- Cleveland Browns
- San Francisco 49ers
- Arizona Cardinals
- Baltimore Ravens
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- Green Bay Packers
- Minnesota Vikings
- Chicago Bears
For some perspective, guess who had the NFL's toughest schedule entering 2008? Yep, the same team that just won the Super Bowl.
Obviously your division has a lot to do with this. The AFC East was super competitive last season so they have all 4 teams in the division in the top 7 toughest schedules. The AFC North, on the other hand, had the 2 AFC representatives in the championship game. Their reward? The 4th and 5th easiest schedules respectively. I wonder if the Chargers and Broncos feel the same way about the Chiefs and Raiders as the Steelers and Ravens feel about the Browns and Bengals.
Just so we're all clear, there is actually a system set up that determines the schedule each year. It's not a subjective scheduling committee that gets together and says 'Okay, we love the Steelers so even though they won the Super Bowl let's give them the 4th easiest schedule in 2009.'
The breakdown for the Chiefs schedule in 2009 goes like this:
Obviously we'll play two games against each team in our division:
- Broncos (Home and Away)
- Raiders (Home and Away)
- Chargers (Home and Away)
That's 6 games. Now, one set of games against an AFC division. This rotates every year. This year it will be the AFC North:
- Pittsburgh (Home)
- Baltimore (Away)
- Cleveland (Home)
- Cincinnati (Away)
That's 10 games. Next we'll play the AFC opponents that finished in the same place in their division as us (last). Since we're already playing the entire AFC North we'll ignore Cincinnati.
- Buffalo Bills (Home)
- Jacksonville Jaguars (Away)
That's 12 games. Finally, we play one NFC division each year. This year happens to be the NFC East:
- New York Giants (Home)
- Philadelphia Eagles (Away)
- Dallas Cowboys (Home)
- Washington Redskins (Away)
And that's how we come up with the 16 game schedule.
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You read my mind...
I was just going to ask if anyone knew the 2009 strength of schedule for the Chiefs. Not sure what it was in 2008 but obviously this is a huge variable when contemplating W-L projections for 2009.
I Think We Could Get Nine Wins Out Of That Schedule
The AFC West is still very weak, and Buffalo and the Jags are both beatable. I thought the Cowboys might be out of our league a few weeks ago, but after watching how things are melting down there now I’m not so sure. That team’s imploding. Washington’s beatable, and so is Philadelphia if McNabb leaves (because Kevin Kolb isn’t that good).
Herm Edwards will not be the Chiefs' head coach next season.
Neither will Mike Shanahan.
Not Much That Can Be Done About It
It’s not like the NFL purposely made sure the NFC East and AFC North were great just so we’d get screwed. And it could be worse…the Dolphins have the toughest schedule in the NFL next year because they’ve got the AFC South and NFC South (no teams with losing records) as well as the AFC East (solid division), Pittsburgh and San Diego. And Miami wasn’t even good enough to get a first round bye last season.
Herm Edwards will not be the Chiefs' head coach next season.
Neither will Mike Shanahan.
Consecutive ranks in the AFC West
I think it is interesting that the whole of the AFC West is ranked consecutively. I wold argue that it is more important for the strength of schedule in each division to be relatively even rather than across the whole NFL, i.e. each of the 4 teams in each division has an equal chance of winning the division.
Blame my wife!
Actually
that’s not that much of a coincidence. Compare our schedule to the Raiders’ schedule:
Denver Broncos (home and away)
Kansas City Chiefs (home and away)
San Diego Chargers (home and away)
Baltimore Ravens
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Pittsburgh Steelers
Dallas Cowboys
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Washington Redskins
New York Jets
Houston Texans
Of the 16 games, 12 are against the same opponents. As long as the remaining four games are somewhat similar, the “toughness” will be about the same.
You think it's coincidence that I bleed red?
Can we all just agree
that schedule ranks in February mean absolutely nothing. In fact, less than nothing, as the ratings of many teams will invert.
No disrespect to the post, but ’08 records are useless in determining ’09 success.
I can agree with that to an extent
On average the NFL playoff field has about a 50% turnover rate anyway.
Can someone
please explain to me why the Chiefs with the worst schedule in the division also ended up with getting the toughest schedule in the division for next year???
Ahh
In the division…I missed that part.
The Chiefs will play the Chargers (8 wins), Broncos (8 wins) and Raiders (4 wins). 20 total wins.
The Broncos will play the Chargers (8 wins), Raiders (4 wins) and Chiefs (2 wins). 14 total wins.
It’s nice having terrible teams in your division.
Well
It’s nice having terrible teams in your division.
Not when it makes your GM look like he’s doing a better job than he actually has been for the last decade. I’d rather the Chiefs played in a good division.
Herm Edwards will not be the Chiefs' head coach next season.
Neither will Mike Shanahan.
Doesn't all the parity make this all pretty useless.
For instance, a year ago Miami was 1-15, people who played them must have been thinking they had an easy game based on 2007. Did anybody expect Arizona to be in the Superbowl after 2007? Or for New England to not make the playoffs? The strength of schedule is all based on what’s happened in the past and with fortunes rising and falling so fast in the NFL you can’t really expect it to mean all that much.
So lets get this straight...
The Superbowl Champs will have the 4th easiest schedule next year, and the Superbowl losers will have the 6th easiest schedule. Very nice how that works out. And, the Bears, Vikings, and packers all have easier schedules than the winless Lions.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the way the schedule rotates, I just find it interesting how this “strength of schedule” works out.
Ha
You make it sound like a conspiracy. 14 of the 16 games are formulaic and have been determined since they came up with the formula. The only two games that are not pre-determined are two teams in the same conference that finish at the same place in the division.
You think it's coincidence that I bleed red?
Ya
I know about all that, was just pointing out the oddities of how the “strength of schedule” pans out for next year.
Important to note
this is the strength of schedule for 2009, BASED ON PERFORMANCES IN 2008
Nothing guarantees that any of the teams will perform comparably to 2008 – take this year’s AFC East – in 2007, the Bills, Dolphins, and Jets were all fairly crummy – so when the 2008 schedule came out, they hurt the Chiefs’ strength of schedule – but they ended up not being crummy, and they kicked our asses. Something similar will happen again next year to several other teams.
(though it does chap my ass that the Vikings won their division and have the second easiest schedule, mostly because I have an asshat ogre Vikings fan for a coworker)
I say bring it on!
Playing good teams has always made players step it up a notch. This should only make us better.
We need a future defensive leader, his name is James Laurinaitis and he can be selected in round 1 of the upcoming Draft.
Ok already, if you don't agree with what I am saying, just don't email my mom again. She beat the crap out of me with my keyboard!
"But what do I know, I’m like an empty room with a large ECHO"
Let's get rolling!
Probably won’t make the playoffs next year however. Some good building possibilities. Would be a good movement to get to 8 – 8. In our division I think that is doable.
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