2025 NFL Schedule Release - Strength of Schedule Rankings for All 32 Teams

2025 NFL schedule release analysis. Joey ranks the 2025 strength of schedule for all 32 NFL teams. Who has easy or difficult opponents in the 2025 NFL season?

The 2025 NFL Schedule hasn't quite released yet, but we already know all the teams each team will be facing, so it's worth looking into roughly how difficult each team's path through the regular season will be. While teams don't stay the same year over year, there are quite a few that are in the middle of long stretches of being consistent.

Whether it's a team like the Baltimore Ravens, who have had consistent success in the regular season, or the Las Vegas Raiders, who have consistently been mediocre to bad over the past decade or so, this consistency gives strength of schedule rankings some legitimacy.

Teams with tougher projected strengths of schedule are thus, obviously, more likely to have issues in their next season, and less likely to get into the playoffs. This matters a lot when it comes to eventual playoff berths and seeding! Let's break down the rankings below.

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2025 NFL Strength of Schedule Rankings

The lower the number, the more difficult the schedule is

Let's get into our key takeaways below.

New York Giants Have It Rough

Obviously, your eyes naturally gravitate to the top of the list, where you see the lowly New York Giants with the toughest schedule of the year. That's not a big surprise, given how competitive the NFC East is right now. Sure, the Dallas Cowboys disappointed in 2024, largely due to an injury to their starting quarterback, Dak Prescott.

However, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl last season, and the Washington Commanders made it to the NFC Championship, where they lost to the eventual champions. The Giants will have an uphill battle getting any wins against their divisional rivals. They've struggled against the Cowboys in recent years, and the Eagles and Commanders are in much better shape than they are.

#Giants strength of schedule over the last 5 years:

25’- 1st
24’- T-6th
23’- T-3rd
22’- 29th
21’ 25th pic.twitter.com/vM6PfxXVXr

— The Giants Report (@GiantsReport1) May 7, 2025

They'll also face a murderer's row of teams in their home games. Other than their four divisional rivals, they'll be forced to face the Minnesota Vikings, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Green Bay Packers at MetLife Stadium. That's absolutely brutal. Giants fans won't be pleased.

Ben Johnson Faces Tough Test In Year 1 As Head Coach 

New Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson will have his chops tested immediately. The Bears have the second-toughest schedule, thanks in large part to sharing a division with the Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, and Green Bay Packers. Those teams won 78 percent of their games in 2024.

While they fizzled pretty drastically in the playoffs, for the regular season, each of those teams retained their head coaches and has an overall great roster on both sides of the ball, give or take a little bit. Johnson's path to the division crown will be extremely difficult.

Most Teams With Hard Schedules Are Pretty Good Themselves 

It's a bit of a coincidence that, save for the Giants and Bears, the teams with the top-10 toughest schedules all had winning records themselves in 2024, other than the Cowboys. The Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders, Baltimore Ravens, and Pittsburgh Steelers have their work cut out for them.

If you're beginning to notice a pattern here, it's that the toughest divisions generally populate the top of these lists, while the easier ones don't. This makes perfect sense, since divisions face their other teams twice a year. This season, there is not much parity.

Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars Are Both Likely Playoff Teams

While other divisions are a bit tougher to get through, the AFC South seems primed to be a battleground for the Texans and Jaguars to battle it out. Most might not believe the Jags will be able to turn it around, but they have Liam Coen, one of the best offensive coordinators in the league, on their side now.

Meanwhile, the Texans fired their much-maligned offensive coordinator, Bobby Slowik, after his second season with the team. He didn't really care about game script or anything else, for that matter -- he just wanted to run the ball as much as possible. Even when his RBs averaged under three yards per carry.

Bobby Slowik is a absolute disaster & it shows up every week in the Texans offensive execution.

If he isn’t gone in the offseason nothing will change for this football team.

🎥: (@TheoAshNFL) pic.twitter.com/RhAMbcOak1

— Jacob (@TexansJacob) December 27, 2024

If new Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley doesn't call a lot more passes, considering the talent the team has at WR now, the Jags could steal the division.

Rams, Buccaneers, Bills In Good Shape To Return To Playoffs

The Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are set up well to return to the playoffs in 2025. They are tied for the 12th-hardest strength of schedule, right around the middle of the league, which is good for teams that had winning records last season.

Both are in divisions with two or more other weak teams. The Rams will have the opportunity to beat up on the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals again, while the Bucs should face little resistance from the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers in 2025.

Our schedule drops in 48 hours!! 👀

Here's everything you need to know: https://t.co/ZNlFl4OyLl@Ticketmaster | #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/YJjrP9KItO

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) May 13, 2025

Meanwhile, the Bills have the New York Jets, New England Patriots, and Miami Dolphins in their division. None of these three teams made it to the playoffs in 2024, and none of them took big strides in the offseason, save the Patriots, though that'll only be true if their offensive line reinforcements pan out.

Meanwhile, the Jets don't have a very good quarterback, have just changed their coaching staff yet again, and didn't add any marquee talents in the 2025 NFL Draft. They did bolster their offensive line, but quarterback Justin Fields has yet to prove that he can lead a team to a winning record for a season.

The Dolphins, meanwhile, regressed markedly on offense in 2024, and have even more trouble brewing. Left tackle Terron Armstead, one of the best pass-blockers in the league when healthy, retired after the 2024 season, leaving the team with yet another hole on the offensive line.

#Dolphins five-time Pro Bowl LT Terron Armstead is retiring, officially ending a star-studded 12-year career.

Armstead was one of the best left tackles of his generation beginning with his stint with the #Saints. Now, he heads into his second career 🎙️. pic.twitter.com/Q28fHJE0mA

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 6, 2025

The Bills shouldn't have much trouble making it back to the postseason, as they've done a lot in recent years.

The 49ers Get An Absolute Blessing

The San Francisco 49ers have the easiest strength of schedule in the league in 2025, with their opponents combining for a paltry .419 win percentage in 2024. They'll be able to get healthier as the season goes along, with wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk returning from an ACL and MCL tear and meniscus damage in one of his knees.

Running back Christian McCaffrey will have had an entire offseason to deal with his bilateral Achilles tendonitis long-term management play, and to recover from the PCL sprain that eventually ended his season. Despite the loss of WR Deebo Samuel Sr., the 49ers are still loaded on offense.

The 49ers play five out of the worst six teams in the NFL, three of them on the road. On paper, this has to be one of the easiest schedules of the 21st-century. pic.twitter.com/PvGegAGcoM

— Gym Nagy (@BackcountryFam) May 11, 2025

San Francisco will likely return to form because of this. Their poor campaign in 2024 was mainly marked by getting absolutely slammed with injuries, especially on offense. From offensive tackle Trent Richardson to Aiyuk, Samuel's pneumonia bout, Ricky Pearsall's gunshot wound, and McCaffrey's very little time played, things couldn't have been much worse.

They'll be much better this year. The 49ers seem destined for another playoff berth. It's just a matter of whether they can avoid injury better this year, which is no guarantee, considering that their head coach, Kyle Shanahan, cares exactly zero about his players'  health.

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