Patriots: Schedule isn’t a cakewalk for other AFC East teams either

While much has been made about the New England Patriots having the league’s hardest schedule in 2020, let’s not forget about their division rivals either.

There’s a lot of gloom and doom out there surrounding the New England Patriots these days. Some of it is justified. Some of it is not.

There’s certainly no denying the negative impact that comes from losing Tom Brady, arguably the greatest football player of all time. The Pats also lost a bevy of key defensive veterans in free agency and they have major question marks at the pass-catching positions on their offense this season.

To top it all off, they’re about to embark on a grueling regular season schedule that is, statistically-speaking, the most difficult in NFL based off last season’s win/loss records.

Now, while those records can’t be taken for granted, they also can’t be taken as gospel either. It’s a brand new season with brand new rosters and coaching staffs around the league — some of the teams from last year that were good will be bad in 2020 and vice versa.

Still, it’s hard to look at some of New England’s opponents this season — Chiefs, 49ers, Seahawks, Ravens — and envision those games being surprisingly easier than they seem like they’ll be at this point.

One storyline that’s not getting enough attention around the web, though, is the fact that the Patriots aren’t alone in facing a brutal gauntlet this season.

So many people are pointing to New England’s difficult schedule and the loss of Brady as being enough evidence to hand the AFC East crown over to Buffalo already in May (or to New York or Miami, if you’re a delusional homer fan of those teams).

People seem to be forgetting that the majority of the most difficult opponents on the Patriots’ 2020 schedule also appear on the 2020 schedules of the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins, too.

The AFC East is playing the AFC West and NFC West this year. That means that the Patriots and their division rivals will all have to take on the likes of the Seahawks, 49ers, and Chiefs this year.

Even some of the second-tier teams in those divisions — the Rams, Chargers, and maybe the Cardinals — could present plenty of problems for all four AFC East teams. The Raiders and the Broncos won’t exactly be pushovers either.

Bills, Jets, and Dolphins all have their work cut out for them in 2020 as well

Yes, New England has to face the first-place finishers from the AFC North (Ravens) and AFC South (Texans) this season. Those are both tough draws — especially Baltimore.

But as the second-place finisher from 2019, Buffalo faces the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football (who should have Ben Roethlisberger back in their lineup) as well as the Tennessee Titans on the road (who lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game last year).

Make no mistake, those two opponents will be difficult for the Bills. While Baltimore is a better team than Pittsburgh, Tennessee is also a better team than Houston — especially after the trade of DeAndre Hopkins.

In other words, New England and Buffalo might have more similarly-difficult schedules than most people think. It could be 1A and 1B this year for the NFL’s toughest regular season schedule between the Patriots and Bills.

The Jets could also be in for some trouble with their opponents from the AFC South and North this year.

New York has to travel to Indianapolis to take on the Colts — a talented, balanced team that just needed a better quarterback in 2019, and now they have one in Philip Rivers.

Gang Green will also face the Browns toward the end of the year. While Cleveland was a major disappointment in 2019, they’re still a definitively more talented squad on paper as of now than the Jets — and it’s not even close.

Finally, there’s Miami. While the Dolphins did draw the two last-place finishers from last season in the AFC South (Jaguars) and AFC North (Bengals), neither of those games are gimmes. Jacksonville is still just two seasons removed from making the AFC Championship Game, and Cincinnati added a generational quarterback in Joe Burrow last April.

All in all, I’m not saying the Patriots don’t have a tough schedule this season. I’m not even saying any of their division rivals have a tougher scheduler.

All I’m saying is that when you really analyze all four AFC East teams and their upcoming schedules for 2020, the differences between them are much less significant than people might think.

To that end, this division race shouldn’t be considered quite as “wide open” as so many want to make it.