The 2018 NFL schedule was surprisingly kind to many of the best teams from 2017. Four of the league's playoff powers don't face anything that would suggest they won't return to the tournament.
In addition, the week-by-week setup played most favorably into the hands of two non-playoff teams who performed at a high level to close last season.
PRIME-TIME SCHEDULES: Thursday, Sunday, Monday games
Here are the six contenders with the least difficult schedules in 2018:
The combined winning percentage of the Steelers' opponents last season was .477, tied with the Jaguars (see below) for 25th in the league. That weakness is evident each month of this season's schedule.
The Steelers face only two fellow playoff teams, the Chiefs and the Falcons, in their first six games before a bye, and both of those games are in Heinz Field. Pittsburgh should have a ton of momentum rolling into the Week 11 divisional playoff rematch in Jacksonvillle. New England at home and New Orleans on the road are back to back in Weeks 15 and 16, but that's it for the non-AFC North spikes. This slate is built for the Steelers to get the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
The 49ers have yet to lose a game with Jimmy Garoppolo as their starting quarterback, and that success should carry over even as they finally lose a few. The hardest games are Week 1 at the Vikings and Week 17 at the Rams. San Francisco travels to Green Bay in Week 6, but everything else is manageable; there's the rest of the NFC West and NFC North, plus the AFC West and two fellow last-place teams (at the Buccaneers in Week 12 and at the Bears in Week 16).
Yes, the Patriots once again have their built-in six-game break by playing in the weak AFC East, which will be weaker with the Bills joining the Jets and Dolphins in rebuilding mode. They do play the Jaguars (Week 2) and the Steelers (Week 15) on the road, but that's balanced by facing the Packers (Week 9) and Vikings (Week 13) at home. The rest of the AFC South and the rest of the NFC North are additional breaks for New England.
The AFC West teams have the most favorable schedules as a group, and that includes the surging Chargers, who stand out as the new best team in the division.
There's the crosstown battle against the Rams in Week 3 and a trip to the Steelers in Week 13, but other than that, the trickiest test might be the London "home" game against the Titans in Week 7. Playing the NFC West further eases the travel; overall, the Chargers will play only three games in the Eastern time zone.
The Jaguars are set up to prove they're here to stay as an AFC playoff heavyweight. Getting both the Patriots (Week 2) and the Steelers (Week 11) at home is a huge opportunity to improve their seeding.
It would have been nice for them to also get the Eagles in Jacksonville, but a neutral-site matchup in London is still pretty good. They couldn't have drawn up it any better in drawing the AFC East and NFC East in the divisional schedule rotation. The Jaguars' defense will get to prey on lots of shaky offenses.
Early home games against the Falcons (Week 1) and Vikings (Week 5) are padded nicely in between by games at the Buccaneers, vs. the Colts and at the Titans. After the Jaguars game in London and a bye, there are late road dates with the Saints (Week 11) and Rams (Week 15), but that's balanced out by home games vs. the Panthers (Week 7) and Texans (Week 16) and five NFC East games in the second half.
There are a lot of teams gunning for the champions in a top-heavy NFC, but relative to recent teams that attempted to repeat, the Eagles are well-perched to battle for conference supremacy.
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