Saints strength of schedule ranked one of the easiest in the NFL

The New Orleans Saints schedule was ranked easiest in the NFC South and 9th easiest in the entire NFL for the upcoming season.

According to the NFL, via the tweet below, the New Orleans Saints’ strength of schedule is .490. Their opponent’s win percentage in 2019 isn’t even over .500 for the upcoming 2020 season, but there is nothing to worry about.

They calculate the strength of schedule based on their opponents’ win percentage from the previous year, but what they don’t take into account in teams like Tampa Bay, who won six games last year, but added Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.

The New Orleans Saints still rank third or fourth on pretty much every website’s power rankings whether before the offseason, free agency, or the NFL Draft to now. They are going to be deadly in the upcoming season.

However, the NFL is sorely wrong on them having the 9th easiest schedule in the NFL. They have one of the hardest non-divisional schedules in the league. They play the top two teams in the NFC besides themselves.

They play the reigning Super Bowl champs and arguably the best team in the entire NFL this year. Don’t be mistaken, this season will be a tough one for the Saints, but an easy schedule is far from the truth.

In all actuality, the New Orleans Saints play one of the hardest schedules in the NFL playing projected top ten teams in six out of their sixteen games according to this projected power ranking by ESPN.com.

They play five games against teams ranked 10-20. That leaves the team only playing five games against teams below a projected rank of 20 on the power rankings for the upcoming year and that is why you can’t play the strength of schedule based on previous years’ records.

The franchise has the possibility to win another 13 games this year as they did last, even with a hard schedule. They also have the opportunity to hoist a second Lombardi trophy in the team’s history (first being in 2009).