25 Questions in 25 Days: Strength of schedule

Giants
11 Jul 2025, 18:30 GMT+10

Dan Salomone

Giants.com is counting down to the start of 2025 Giants Training Camp with 25 questions in 25 days.

12) Do the Giants really have the toughest schedule in the NFL?

Dan Salomone:On paper, yes.

Three primetime games, including a pair at home against both of last year's conference champions, and two Super Bowl rematches highlight the Giants' slate, which begins with back-to-back road contests in the division against the Commanders and Cowboys.

The Giants' home opener is set for "Sunday Night Football" in Week 3 against the Chiefs, whose three-peat attempt was thwarted this past February by the Eagles. The Giants will host the defending Super Bowl champions three weeks later in a Thursday night matchup at MetLife Stadium.

Under the NFL's schedule rotation, the Giants face all four teams from the NFC North and AFC West, and same-place finishers from the NFC South (Saints), NFC West (49ers), and AFC East (Patriots). That is in addition to the annual home-and-home series with their three divisional opponents. This year, NFC teams will play nine road games and eight at home.

There are 15 Super Bowl rematches on the 2025 NFL regular-season schedule. The Giants, who embark on their 101st season, account for two of them, both of which will be played on the road. They face the Broncos (XXI) in Week 7 at Empower Field at Mile High and the Patriots (XLII and XLVI) in a Week 13 Monday night game in Foxborough, where coach Brian Daboll won five Super Bowls as an assistant with New England.

The Giants will then go on their bye in Week 14, the latest possible slot in the NFL.

Speaking of Super Bowl rematches and Daboll's former teams, the Giants open the preseason at Buffalo (Saturday, Aug. 9, 1 p.m.). They will also host the Jets (Saturday, Aug. 16, 7 p.m.) and Patriots (Thursday, Aug. 21, 8 p.m.) to round out the summer.

The Giants play 10 regular-season games against teams who made the postseason in 2024 Eagles twice, Commanders twice, Packers, Vikings, Chiefs, Chargers, Broncos, and Lions which is tied for third-most in the league. The Eagles and Lions have the most with 11 apiece.

The Giants' 2025 opponents went 166-123 in 2024, good for a .574 winning percentage, the highest in the NFL. Looking at their NFC East foes, the Eagles have the fourth-toughest schedule in terms of winning percentage (.561); the Cowboys are tied for fifth (.557); and the Commanders are eighth (.550). The San Francisco 49ers, meanwhile, have the "easiest" road in the NFL at .415.

But no two seasons are ever the same, a sentiment that defines the NFL more than any other sports league.

According to NFL Research, four of the past five teams with the "easiest" strength of schedule missed the postseason (2024 Saints and Falcons were tied, 2023 Falcons, 2022 Commanders). Conversely, two of the past four teams with the "hardest" schedule made the postseason (2023 Eagles, 2021 Steelers).

Furthermore, the NFL boasts a streak of 35 consecutive seasons with at least four teams qualifying for the playoffs after missing out the year before. And at least one team has won its division the season after missing the playoffs in 53 of 55 seasons since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. The outliers were 2024 and 1976, the only years in which the division winners were all in playoffs the prior season.

That is a long way of explaining that one year matters very little to the next because rosters never stay the same.