Fantasy football: Why the 2026 NFL schedule benefits the Lions and Eagles

The 2026 NFL schedule has been released, and we're now one step closer to the start of the season.

This column will examine how the slate affects the fantasy football landscape in two different ways: Which offenses and specific players have it the easiest and hardest?

Note that since Week 18 is no longer included in default ESPN Fantasy Football leagues, it is not included in the fantasy football portion of this study. The analysis below is your next step in preparing for the 2026 fantasy football season.

More: Rankings | Projections | Rookies | Offseason moves

Team schedules

For this section, my strength of schedule evaluation is not based on final 2025 records, which is often what you'll see in this type of column. There has already been a ton of roster movement this offseason and injured players will return to action, so all of that is factored into each team's 2026 prospects. My evaluation of each roster -- not last year's production -- is what I use to generate the easiest and toughest schedules for each offense.

Easiest fantasy schedule: Detroit Lions

The Lions' schedule does not include a single defense projected to finish in the top 10, with their three hardest opponents projected to be the Green Bay Packers (their road matchup is in Week 18), Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots. They have a substantial number of attractive matchups, including the Miami Dolphins, Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, New York Giants and New Orleans Saints. This is obviously good news across the board for Detroit's fantasy-relevant players, but especially for Jahmyr Gibbs, who has a very attractive schedule and no longer has to fend off David Montgomery for work. Gibbs has a strong case to be the No. 1 overall pick in fantasy drafts.

Rounding out the top-five easiest fantasy slates are the Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles (more on them later), Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens.

The easiest slates during the fantasy playoffs (Weeks 15 to 17) belong to the Washington Commanders, Saints and Cardinals.

Toughest fantasy schedule: Arizona Cardinals

Arizona landing first on this list shouldn't be too surprising considering that nearly one-quarter of its games will be against elite Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks defenses. With the NFC West set to face off with the AFC West, the Cardinals' offense will also need to deal with good-to-great Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs defenses, as well as a tough matchup against the Eagles. On the plus side, there are a few attractive games on the slate, highlighted by the Commanders and Las Vegas Raiders. Interestingly, Arizona has a very hard regular-season schedule, but a much easier one during the fantasy playoffs (New York Jets, Saints, Raiders). Heavy volume should allow the likes of Jeremiyah Love and Trey McBride to overcome this hurdle, but receivers Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson are a bit less attractive on draft day.

The Carolina Panthers, Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Chargers round out the five toughest slates.

The hardest schedules during the fantasy playoffs belong to the Eagles, Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers.

Positional upgrades and downgrades

Included in this section is a 2026 strength of schedule chart for each of the primary fantasy positions: quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, D/ST and kicker. These charts show where each position ranked in strength of schedule last season, as well as a projection for 2026 based on each team's schedule (Weeks 1 to 17). The lower/greener the number is, the easier the schedule. The higher/redder the number is, the harder the opposition.

In this section, how effective the opposition is against each position is determined by last season's results. As noted earlier, that's not perfect, but there are two reasons why we still include this feature:

• One, studies have shown that there is some correlation between defensive effectiveness vs. each position year to year.

• Two, even if you ignore the future projections, there's something to be learned from the 2025 results.

For example, as you can see below, Dallas Cowboys wide receivers had the second-hardest schedule last season. The unit projects for the ninth-easiest slate in 2026, but even if you ignore that part, good ol' regression to the mean suggests it is very unlikely to be quite as hard as it was last season. That's good news for CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens regardless of how you slice it.

Here are a few key takeaways from this chart:

The Eagles are sitting pretty with the easiest projected schedule at three of the four key fantasy positions (QB, RB, WR, TE). This checks out with five games against the NFC East, as well as A-plus matchups with the Titans and Cardinals. The Eagles did have a light slate last season as well, but this helps the offense's chances of a bounce-back season. That said, one major thing we need to pay attention to here is the order of games. The Eagles rival the Lions for the easiest fantasy schedule during the fantasy regular season, but the slate during the playoffs (Seahawks, Texans, at 49ers) is as tough as it gets. Keep this in mind when considering the likes of Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith, Makai Lemon and Dallas Goedert.

The rest of the NFC East follows suit. Philly tops the division here mainly because it doesn't have to face itself, but the skill position players for the Giants, Cowboys and Commanders are also in a terrific spot. The Cowboys are perhaps most interesting, as their schedule goes from hard to easy at quarterback, tight end and aforementioned wide receiver, and remains easy for running back Javonte Williams.

This chart also suggests life will be good for the four AFC South teams. I'm unimpressed with three of the four defenses in the division (Houston the obvious exception) and the Jaguars, Titans, Texans and Indianapolis Colts will each face the aforementioned NFC East. For all four teams, the slate goes from very hard last season to very light for the quarterback position, making Trevor Lawrence, Daniel Jones, Cam Ward and C.J. Stroud more appealing on draft day.

This is also interesting for Jonathan Taylor, who was great with a healthy Jones last season (24.8 fantasy PPG), but not so much without him (12.9 PPG). The dip also coincided with a brutal end-of-season schedule for the Colts, with their final seven games against the Chiefs, Texans (twice), Jaguars (twice), Seahawks and 49ers. Taylor is primed for another terrific season.

The AFC West appears to be in a tough spot, highlighted by a Raiders offense that will face its division mates six times, in addition to matchups with the Rams, Seahawks, Cleveland Browns and Patriots. As the chart indicates, the Raiders are looking at the toughest slate for quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers. That's not ideal for rookie Fernando Mendoza, Ashton Jeanty or potential sleeper receivers Jalen Nailor, Tre Tucker and Jack Bech.

Schedules for the Panthers, Patriots and Chicago Bears go from easy to potentially hard. All three offenses took advantage of light slates, at times, last season, but things may be a bit tougher in 2026. For someone like Drake Maye, this could be offset a bit by a much-improved wide receivers room (assuming the A.J. Brown deal gets done), but for the New England running backs, a dip in efficiency is probable. This is potentially concerning news for the outlook of Chuba Hubbard, Caleb Williams, D'Andre Swift, Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III.

The schedules for the Saints, Browns and Vikings look attractive ... but they were last year as well. Don't get me wrong, that is good news for these offenses, but -- aside from perhaps the Tyler Shough-era Saints -- these units didn't take advantage of light slates in 2025. This does add some appeal to an ascending New Orleans offense, as well as a Minnesota unit that could bounce back with Kyler Murray under center. Cleveland has an intriguing young offense, but questions at quarterback make the Browns a major wild card.

While strength of schedule is a valuable tool you can use when setting your predraft rankings or breaking a tie when you're on the clock, it's most useful during the season. Once we have a sample of a few regular-season weeks, our website will include weekly charts similar to the one above, as well as expanded charts showing each team's weekly opponent so that you can plan ahead and make the best trades, pickups and lineup decisions.

Superlatives

Now that we have the full NFL schedule, we can also look at the overall (not just fantasy) strength of schedule and make some early predictions on this year's playoff field.

Easiest NFL schedule:

1. Lions

2. Cincinnati Bengals

3. Saints

4. Browns

5. Ravens

Toughest NFL schedule:

1. Cardinals

2. Dolphins

3. Rams

4. Chargers

5. Seahawks

Projected AFC playoff seeds:

1. Ravens (bye)

2. Broncos

3. Bills

4. Texans

5. Bengals

6. Patriots

7. Chiefs

Projected NFC playoff seeds:

1. Rams (bye)

2. Lions

3. Eagles

4. Buccaneers

5. Seahawks

6. Cowboys

7. 49ers

Super Bowl LXI Champion: Los Angeles Rams (MVP: Matthew Stafford)

Projected 2027 NFL draft top 5:

1. Dolphins

2. Cardinals

3. Titans

4. Raiders

5. Falcons