Ease of schedule rankings?

[Krassotti]

So I am new to fantasy football and in a league with a bunch of friends.

In a couple of threads I have read that some teams have a "tough" schedule or an "easy" one this year.

Who are the teams with an easy and tough schedule and should you take advantage of it drafting from those teams in the later rounds or does it really not matter?

Thanks.

[KingGhidra]

I think your best bet is to look at team schedules individually instead of relying on strength of schedule. Those are always based on the previous years stats and lots of things can change. For example, I think Portis did himself a favor getting out of the AFC West because I expect Oakland and KC defense to be vastly improved.

I think Seattle will probably have an easier schedule than advertised because St. Louis and San Francisco will fall off a lot. Cincinnati's schedule doesn't scare me nearly as much as is being predicted by SOS.

[DraftDodger]

This is a bit subjective. You can't simply go back last year's performance because some teams make big improvements and others slide, but here are some projections to compare:

Fanboy:

http://www.fanbay.net/nfl/projected/strength.htm

Footballdocs:

http://www.footballdocs.com/ss_reg_season.html

FFToday:

http://www.fftoday.com/sos/sos.htm

There are lots of SOS charts out there, and some places like FFToolbox do a lot of number crunching. When I play matchups I look for exploitable weakness more than SOS, however. Is a rookie QB getting sacked and intercepted a lot? Great, I'll take the opposing defense this week. Injuries, players forced into new systems, inexperience ... these are all things that can be exploited on a weekly basis. And none of that shows up in SOS ratings. You also see aberrations that aren't easily explained, like the Pats one year beating a 6-0 team and losing to an 0-6 team.

Most fantasy players aren't going to bench their studs because they're facing a tough opponent; sometimes that's when a player really shines, against great competition.

What SoS CAN do for you is keep your head out of the clouds. Sometimes players put up great stats against poor defenses, and on paper those players look like studs. You're looking for a free agent in Week 2 and you see some #4 WR with 110 yds and a TD and you think, "Oh yeah, there's my man." Of course, more often than not, he doesn't even make a blip on the radar the week you use him.

If you can get more than that out of SoS, more power to ya.

[moose_ffc]

I think your best bet is to look at team schedules individually instead of relying on strength of schedule. Those are always based on the previous years stats and lots of things can change. For example, I think Portis did himself a favor getting out of the AFC West because I expect Oakland and KC defense to be vastly improved.

I think Seattle will probably have an easier schedule than advertised because St. Louis and San Francisco will fall off a lot. Cincinnati's schedule doesn't scare me nearly as much as is being predicted by SOS.

Yeah, stats change form year to year, but last year's stats can be a good indicator. My buddy used SOS last season to help him line up Hasselbeck / Alexander / and A. Green for the playoffs and reg season. Not too shabby!

[Azrael]

For example, I think Portis did himself a favor getting out of the AFC West because I expect Oakland and KC defense to be vastly improved.

Do you really think KC will be that improved on defense? I can't remember any notable FA acquisitions and their draft wasn't real great. I didn't think they really did anything except change their coordinator.

[The Lung]

For example, I think Portis did himself a favor getting out of the AFC West because I expect Oakland and KC defense to be vastly improved.

Do you really think KC will be that improved on defense? I can't remember any notable FA acquisitions and their draft wasn't real great. I didn't think they really did anything except change their coordinator.

Yea, I could swear I read an article somewhere recently about how the Chefs did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to improve their defense over last year.

[MadScott]

For example, I think Portis did himself a favor getting out of the AFC West because I expect Oakland and KC defense to be vastly improved.

Do you really think KC will be that improved on defense? I can't remember any notable FA acquisitions and their draft wasn't real great. I didn't think they really did anything except change their coordinator.

The only major change that they made this offseason was Gunther Cunningham. They didn't make any offseason moves but they did get everyone healthy. Personally I think Gunther will make a huge difference to their defense this year. His attacking style should suit that defense quite well.

[moose_ffc]

For example, I think Portis did himself a favor getting out of the AFC West because I expect Oakland and KC defense to be vastly improved.

Do you really think KC will be that improved on defense? I can't remember any notable FA acquisitions and their draft wasn't real great. I didn't think they really did anything except change their coordinator.

The only major change that they made this offseason was Gunther Cunningham. They didn't make any offseason moves but they did get everyone healthy. Personally I think Gunther will make a huge difference to their defense this year. His attacking style should suit that defense quite well.

This is what I heard. And I believe that Cunningham WILL make them much better. Heck the KC defense couldn't get much worse! Right?

[MadScott]

For example, I think Portis did himself a favor getting out of the AFC West because I expect Oakland and KC defense to be vastly improved.

Do you really think KC will be that improved on defense? I can't remember any notable FA acquisitions and their draft wasn't real great. I didn't think they really did anything except change their coordinator.

The only major change that they made this offseason was Gunther Cunningham. They didn't make any offseason moves but they did get everyone healthy. Personally I think Gunther will make a huge difference to their defense this year. His attacking style should suit that defense quite well.

This is what I heard. And I believe that Cunningham WILL make them much better. Heck the KC defense couldn't get much worse! Right?

They actually weren't that bad to start the year until Maslowski (sp?) got injured and then it all went downhill from there. Gunther's style is more user friendly and I expect this speedy team to excel in it.

[recmccl]

SOS is good info, but I'd use it to break a tie between closely ranked players. I put a little stock in SOS, but not overly