2009 NFL Schedule: Carolina Panthers Difficult, Arizona Cardinals Easy

There is a plethora of NFL schedule analysis out there, but we would like to offer a unique perspective that we gain when we use the Relative Performance Measure (RPM) of PossessionPoints.com.

We use this measure to evaluate the teams’ schedules based upon their opponents’ RPM from last season.

We do not want to go into all the details of what goes into our RPM, but our performance measure is particularly useful for this type of analysis. 

It serves as a grading system that quickly identifies good teams from bad teams. Last season, the Steelers finished at the top of our chart with an RPM of +37, while the 0-16 Lions finished at the bottom with a -60. 

When we apply our RPM to a season schedule analysis, we add together all the opponents’ RPMs.

So, if a team was only going to be playing the Steelers and Lions, we would say their schedule had a – 23 RPM which would be an easier than average schedule.

In the world of PossessionPoints, the higher RPM, the more difficult the opponent is and the more difficult the schedule is.   

For the upcoming season, we found that the Panthers’ opponents had a +227 RPM, which translates into one really hard schedule.  It well outpaced the No. 2 Dolphins whose opponents’ RPMs were +169. 

The +227 RPM was also more than 100 RPM points greater than the third toughest schedule, which belongs to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

One of the goals of the NFL schedule makers is to try and give the previous season’s best teams a more difficult schedule; however, this season, according to PossessionPoints, it did not work out that way.

The Cardinals have the easiest schedule, as their opponents have a combined -199 RPM. Super Bowl Champions, the Steelers, have the fifth easiest schedule with a combined -128 RPM.

Another thing we look at or our schedule analysis is the home vs. road situation. 

Imagine your favorite team had to go play the mythical schedule mentioned above of the Steelers and Lions. 

To give your team the best chance of victory against those two teams, you would rather they play the Steelers in your stadium and go visit the Lions in Detroit. 

When we added this to our analysis, the Steelers had the best or easiest road schedule with a -159 RPM. Their home schedule was a +30.

So, this means Pittsburgh is playing their most difficult games in their own house, in front of their fanatical and fervent fans.

The team that is playing the absolute toughest opponents at home are the Bucs whose home opponents have an RPM of +140. 

We need to put an asterisk on this, because one of the Bucs’ home games is thousands of miles away across the pond in London against the Patriots. 

We do not think the Bucs can legitimately claim a home field advantage there.

We realize that our analysis is different from the traditional media, so we have provided links to our site where you can find all of last year’s RPMs as well as the charts that break down this year’s schedule.