Strength of Schedule: Hardest and Weakest Slates for NFL Teams

There are tons of different ways to sway expectations for your team ahead of what promises to be another exciting year of NFL football.

Strength of schedule is an easy and simple way to use last year's records to determine just how hard your team's journey might be in 2024.

It has its holes of course; every year is different, and every team is different than they were a season ago.

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Here are the 5 teams with the EASIEST schedules based on strength of schedule in 2024:

T-1st) New Orleans Saints - Opponent record - 131-158

T-1st) Atlanta Falcons - Opponent record - 131-158

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T-3rd) Chicago Bears - Opponent record - 135-154

T-3rd) Carolina Panthers - Opponent record - 135-154

T-5th) Los Angeles Chargers - Opponent record - 138-151

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T-5th) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Opponent record - 138-151

A lot of this has to due with just how bad a team's division was the year prior, and just how bad their cross-conference division was as well. That is the case of the NFC South, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the division with a 9-8 mark. The NFC South will face the AFC West this season.

Here are the 5 teams with the HARDEST schedules based on strength of schedule this season:

1st) Cleveland Browns - Opponent record - 158-131

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2nd) Baltimore Ravens - Opponent record - 155-134

3rd) Pittsburgh Steelers - Opponent record - 154-135

T-4th) Houston Texans - Opponent record - 152-137

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T-4th) Green Bay Packers - Opponent record - 152-137

Typically, better teams from a season ago face a harder slate the next year. It's a simple way that the NFL boosts parity year in and year out.

The Browns, Ravens, Steelers, Texans, and Packers are all teams likely to compete for playoff spots this Fall, while the Saints, Falcons, Bears, Panthers, Chargers, and Bucs are on the outside looking in for the most part.

The NFL season kicks off on Thursday, September 5th when the Kansas City Chiefs play host to the Baltimore Ravens at Arrowhead Stadium.

The NFL Preseason officially begins on August 1st with the Hall of Fame Game from Canton, Ohio between the Chicago Bears and the Houston Texans.

Source: Eat Drink and Sleep Football

From Blockbusters to Hidden Gems: 35 Movies That Take Place in South Dakota

When it comes to South Dakota and Hollywood, we've seen our fair share of films that have used our state as the backdrop for a number of productions over the years. They may not have always filmed here, but movie folk love to set stories here.

We're all familiar with the blockbusters like 1990's Dances With Wolves, 1959's North By Northwest, and more recently, 2007's National Treasure: Book of Secrets. But our state's life on the big screen goes back nearly 100 years.

According to IMDb, it all started with Courtin' Wildcats, a 1929 film which, like so many of the 29 films on this list, is a Western set in the time before South Dakota became a state in 1889.

Gallery Credit: Jeff Harkness/B1027.com