The Fumblerooski Podcast
Saving The Dates -Ep 272 The Fumblerooski Podcast
The NFL schedule for 2024 has just been released and we're going to go over the top five hardest schedules and the holiday schedule for this upcoming season. I'm Adam Wright, you're listening to the Fumbarooski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome to the Fumbarooski podcast by Power88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright and it's just me today, but the NFL schedule was just released a couple of days ago and you're just going to go over a little bit of that today. It's important to note that the schedule really, we find out which teams are playing which through early in the season, but we find out the order, the entire schedule is finalized at right at this moment, in May. That's usually when they do it, but it's still important to kind of figure out which teams have the hardest schedules and which teams have the easiest. We're going to go over the top five hardest schedules. So looking at the Cleveland Browns are at number one. It's important to note that the top five schedules, the hardest schedules, we're going based on win percentage from last season, they were all playoff teams last season. I'm not sure if they did that on purpose, but the top five teams in hardest strength of schedule, they were all playoff teams last year. So the ranking goes from going from one to five, Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers and the Houston Texans, all teams who were in the playoffs this past season. Now three out of the five are in one division, the AFC North, which is very fitting because this division is maybe one of the most competitive divisions, if not the most competitive out of the past decade and a half, every single year you usually see a couple of playoff teams, if not more, it does get insane the way it works with that. But their schedule there, it leads off with the first five games being the Cowboys. They'll be visiting, they'll be hosting the Cowboys, they'll be at the Jaguars versus the Giants at the Raiders and at the commanders, right out of the gates, doesn't look too hard, three out of the five were not playoff teams. Then after that you go to the, you visit the Eagles, you're hosting the Bengals, then you're hosting the Ravens again. They have the tough, they have the toughest division in football arguably. So it does make sense that these AFC North teams have some of the tougher schedules. So looking at it, you have the Bengals, then you have the Ravens, the Chargers, you're at the Saints, you're hosting the Steelers, you're at the Broncos at Steelers, you're hosting the Chiefs at the Bengals, you're hosting the Dolphins and you're at the Ravens. So right out of the gates, I mean, you have, you have a bunch of teams in your own division who you faced twice. So the same thing goes for the Steelers and same thing goes for the Ravens and the Steelers. So these are all, a lot of it comes down to how tough your division is. And also the AFC is just a stacked conference in general, like you get a lot of, you get a lot of playoff teams, and if they're not playoff teams, they were in contention for it. So the Ravens, they start off their schedule with the Chiefs. They have the Raiders, Cowboys, Bills, Bengals. So that those first five games are much tougher for them because they have the Bills, Bengals, and the Chiefs and the Cowboys. The Cowboys, it doesn't, it depends on what Cowboys team you get. You could get the chokers of the playoffs, but in the regular season, it becomes a little more dicey, but the, the, the Bills in the regular season and the Bengals and the Chiefs. I wouldn't be surprised if they beat the Chiefs. I think the Chiefs are that type of team where they could show a lot of regular season struggle, but as long as they make the playoffs and most of their core is healthy, then they're not going to have any issues, but they still do during the regular season. They lost a lot of games that they had no business losing during the regular season. Then they turned it off, then they turned it on in the postseason and the Ravens are a very good regular season team. They went 13 and four last year and I see this Ravens team making the playoffs again, but that doesn't mean you won't have your hiccups and it doesn't mean that you don't have one of the toughest schedules in the, in the entire league. I mean, so the Ravens being at two, looking at the number three team and I pulled up all the schedules here, the ESPN loves to make things convenient for you and closes out every single tab. So bear with me here, just to give, just to give a visual. Then we have right here we have for the Pittsburgh Steelers. These first five games are actually very easy. You have the Falcons, you have the Broncos, the Chargers, Colts and the Cowboys. You do have a couple of wild cards here. I think the coaching's going to get much better for the Chargers, but they also have significantly less weapons. Their defense and their offense got much weaker. Their offensive line is going to be able to protect Justin Herbert a little better, but he still needs some targets. I do love to say that the offensive line is more important than your targets that you have to throw to, but it doesn't make the targets that your quarterback has to throw to any less important. Every single position has its benefits. It has its purpose. Otherwise, it wouldn't exist as a position. So you need to have your targets and the Chargers, I don't think they'll be very good. But a couple of wild cards here, Colts and the Falcons, these are two teams that could end up being pretty good. They could also end up being bad because they've always been that fringe team that sometimes they're pretty good, sometimes they're bad. The Colts especially, they're a team that can make the playoffs, but sometimes they don't. They made a playoff push and the Falcons are in a bad division. The Buccaneers are probably maybe head and shoulders better than them. They made a lot of upgrades, but we'll see what ends up happening there. Their schedule does get much, much tougher later on where they have in their final five games, they have actually their final six games here. They have the Bengals, Browns, Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs, and Bengals again, again. Here you have a, you have an AFC North team and the Steelers are not, I just don't know if the Steelers are going to survive it, excuse me, because the Steelers are not that good of a football team, excuse me. The Steelers just have, I feel very much for the Steelers because they're still in their rebuild process. They're still looking for a quarterback, but they still have trouble, they still have trouble with creating, with getting wins, and they, they're just good enough to be 500 or better, but I don't know if they will be, I don't know if they will be good enough to make the playoffs. They barely squeaked in this past year, but the rest of the AFC North is getting better and are the Steelers that much better? I don't know. I don't think so. On top of that, the only team that missed the playoffs in the AFC North were the Bengals who are hurt with Joe Burrow. If Joe Burrow wasn't hurt, the Steelers probably don't make the playoffs and I, did they get any better? I don't think so because Russell Wilson, I don't know if he has it anymore. Looking at the next team, the Green Bay Packers, so this one is, so four out of the five are playoff teams, or rather are AFC teams. This is the only team that is in the NFC that has a tough schedule, which is interesting because the AFC is, that's where it's loaded to the gills with competitive teams. The NFC is very top heavy, and on top of that, your division has a lot of wild cards. I think the Vikings and Bears are going to be very dependent on how their new quarterback plays, the Bears with Caleb Williams, and the Vikings with JJ McCarthy, and we're not even sure if JJ McCarthy is even going to be ready to start the season. There are some rumors floating around that Sam Darnell might start the year, and they may do what the Patriots might be planning to do where they start, where they sit their quarterback for some time until he's ready. But it'll all hinge on whether or not those players can play. The Lions, I think we know what we're getting out of them. And then there's the Packers. The Packers made the playoffs as one of the last wild card teams. And the Lions did end up winning the division, but Jordan Love was in his first year starting. So looking at these first few games, let's say the first six, you're hosting the Eagles, hosting the Colts, you're visiting the Titans, you're hosting the Vikings, and then you are visiting the Rams, then you're hosting the Cardinals. Again, a couple of, there's a lot of mysteries here. We know the Eagles are going to be good, but the Colts. The Colts are a top, who knows how Anthony Richards is going to play. They also got Ad and I, Mitchell in the draft, Alec Pierce looks good. We know Michael Pittman is good. They have a good offensive line, but it's going to come down to how Anthony Richards in place. They also have a decent defense. So it'll come down to Anthony Richardson, but that team has some potential. The Titans, I think we've talked about them a little bit in past episodes. It's a team that it all comes down to Will Levis, but they did surround him with good talent where if he can play, this Titans team is going to be really good. And even if he's, even if he's average, even if he's just okay, I still see a really strong chance that this Titans team makes a playoff push. And even if they don't make the playoffs, they could still be a really tough out to any playoff team like the Green Bay Packers here. So pay attention to the Titans, Vikings, JJ McCarthy is going to be the key to everything. I don't know if he's going to be ready this year, but if he is, then watch out for them because you have JJ, you have, excuse me, you have Justin Jefferson. You have Addison, Jordan Addison, Jeez, Jordan Addison and TJ Hawkinson. And an offensive line that's just okay, a defense that's improving. So if JJ McCarthy can play, then that's a tough team to look out for. And the Rams cashed in on some pretty good offensive talent in later rounds. And Matthew Stafford can still play. So that's another tough team to beat. So you can see how this schedule, it surprises you to see how tough it is, but it's a tough schedule. They have, like I said, they have the Bears twice. They have the Vikings twice, Lions twice. So it's either these teams are, they are missed their question marks, or they were playoff teams last year, like Detroit, where you know that they can beat you. But Chicago also is not your Chicago isn't your classic team that you end up. They're not your classic number one overall pick team. Remember, they got this pick from the Panthers, and the Panthers were not that good last year. So the Bears were seven and 10, but they had a nice little run towards the end of the season, and then they added a lot of talent. So we'll see what ends up happening. And then we have the Texans here. The Texans are in the, we'll go out for the AFC South, because here you have the Colts. You have the Jaguars who are still there. The Titans are a sneaky talented team. And right out of the gates, their division is going to be tough. I could see any one of these teams being competitive this year. If they're not, one of them might end up being bad. There's always that one team that's a bust. You expect them to be good and they're not. But I wouldn't be surprised if any one of these teams at least made a playoff push. I'm not saying all of them will. One of them might end up being bad, but I wouldn't be surprised. Let's say the Titans go 9 and 8 and they're in contention for the last playoff spot. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest. Same thing with the Jaguars. I wouldn't be surprised if the Jaguars won the division. They have the talent to contend in the AFC, but as long as they have pressed Taylor as their offensive coordinator, I don't trust them. I just don't. And Houston, they did very well with their offensive talent that they had. Then they added to it and they added on both sides of the ball. So I would, I favor Houston to win this division despite this tough schedule, but again, there's a lot of teams here that could end up being competitive and they could also be really bad. There's a lot of teams here outside of their division, right? They have the jets and they have the dolphins. These are all, these are two teams that could end up being much better than we expect and just in their division. They have some tough outs. The Bears are their opponent in week two. There's a team that we could see going 10 and 7. We could also see them going 7 and 10, right? Because we don't know what they're going to be like, but they brought in a lot of good talent this offseason so we could see something happening there. All right. So there's the top five going over their schedules. Next we're going to go over the holiday schedule and we are going to go over, which are the better matchups. We're just in the more fun matchups that you guys are going to be going through while you're having your holiday dinners. That's next. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back to back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spots. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a loose, loose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fumble Ruski podcast by Power Radiate and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright. So going over the holiday schedule. There's some good matchups in here. I think definitely my favorite football is Thanksgiving football. I think that's time where it's already a fun holiday because you get to eat and you get to be around family, get to have some fun desserts, but being able to do it with football being there as well. So the first Thanksgiving matchup is this will be at 12.30 p.m. Eastern time. This will be the time when you are preparing some of your food. Maybe you're taking your dog for a walk, getting all his energy out. Or maybe you'll be coming back from a run or finishing a workout for when you're about to sit and eat a ton of food, but bears at Lions. Lions always play on Thanksgiving, as you guys know. This is a bit of a rivalry game and this is one I'm actually really intrigued by. Actually I think this is the most intriguing one out of all the matchups here. So the other ones are the Giants at the Cowboys. Cowboys always play, as you know, on Thanksgiving, the Miami Dolphins at the Green Bay Packers. Now the toughest matchup, the best matchup here is probably the Dolphins and the Packers. I think that is the most, that's going to be the most storied matchup here. So I understand why this one's in prime time. I think this one has the best chance to become the most competitive game. The thing is, I think we know what we're going to get with it. And yeah, it could be a blowout, but we'll see. I think what I'm most intrigued by and it could end up not being intriguing at all. This is week 13, by the way. So we will know if the bears are good or not. I am intrigued by this matchup as of May 17th. I am intrigued by the matchup of bears at Lions. We already know the Lions are probably going to be good unless something, some unforeseen injury happens or just Jared Goff ends up being really bad for no reason. The Lions are going to be good. The bears we're not so sure about. If the bears end up being good and then you have this matchup, oh boy, I'm not going to be preparing any food during that time. I'm going to have my eyes glued on the TV for this matchup because, I mean, the bears have lots of talent that they added to both sides of the ball. And Caleb Williams, say what you want about how likeably is off the field, how you feel about him in general, maybe his talent level, he's, it's all going to hinge on how Caleb Williams does. And if he ends up being able to play, then this bears team will be very competitive. So I am very excited for this game just to touch on the Giants Cowboys game because I've touched on both the other two. This one's at 4.30 p.m., this is about as bad a matchup as it gets. And I can see why they put it at 4.30 when everyone's eating because no one's going to be caring about this game. If you don't have a bet placed or you don't have a fantasy football player on it, this is going to be a, this is going to be a bloodbath, the Cowboys are going to destroy the Giants. If you have Malik neighbors on your fantasy team, go ahead and start him. I feel like he's going to end up being that one player on a bad team who ends up doing really well, it's going to give you Odell Beckham Jr. vibes. If you have the Cowboys defense, start him because Daniel Jones is one of the worst quarterbacks at taking care of the football in the league. They have one of the worst offensive lines, the Giants, and the Cowboys have one of the best defensive lines at rushing the passer in the league in recent years. And they also have one of the best secondaries when it comes to being a ball hawk. You have Darren Bland and you have Travon Diggs, two guys who are known to have a nose for the football and get those interceptions. So that's just a recipe for turnovers and if you have, if you have them on your fantasy team, start them, definitely start them. Looking at Black Friday, it's also week 13's the day after they tried it last year. I thought it was pretty good. So like you get, you get a lot of the crowd who's shopping on Black Friday. Some people want to stay home and they want something to do. I think football, it taps into that crowd and it's going to be the Vegas Raiders at the Kansas City Chiefs. It's not that good of a matchup, it's a rivalry game. But again, I think it's, people are looking for something to do if they're not shopping. And there's a large crowd of people who just don't want to shop on Black Friday. So I think this is going to tap into that crowd regardless. People have bets placed, people might be a fan of the Raiders or the Chiefs. This is going to be, I think it's good that we're getting football on Black Friday. Here we are on to the Christmas Day schedule. It's week 17. So we have the Kansas City Chiefs at the Pittsburgh Steelers that's at 1 p.m. It's on Netflix. And then you have the Baltimore Ravens at the Houston Texans at 4.30 p.m. Eastern time. This is interesting because these are a couple pretty solid matchups. I know the Chiefs at Steelers doesn't seem like much, but let's not forget this Chiefs offense is very iffy. And the Steelers just have a tendency to be able to hang with any team in the league. I think they're another nine and eight slam dunk, but it doesn't mean they can't make this a competitive game and maybe even pull an upset because again, with the Chiefs, anything goes with me. I think a lot of teams can upset this team during the regular season. It doesn't matter to what they're going to do during the postseason because they just have the ability to turn it on. And I think they're going to have to do that this year because I don't think they have the offensive firepower to just blow teams out of the water and go 14 and 3 every season anymore. I don't think they have that unless Xavier worthy turns into something and you know, we'll see it could. I don't see it, but a lot of people do. So we'll see what happens there. Ravens at Texans. This is a divisional round rematch where the Ravens blew doors. But CJ Stroud is pretty young and this could end up being a pretty good matchup because the Texans also got significantly better. The Ravens kind of stayed the same. So this could be a good matchup, but my takeaway for Christmas Day is the fact that it looks like they saved all of their best matchups for Netflix. This is the first year Netflix is getting the some NFL action. And so they want to flex their muscles a little bit. They want to start out strong and they're adding in two solid matchups here. Now you want to know my thoughts about the NFL being on Netflix. You can love Netflix. You can hate Netflix. You can love Amazon Prime. You can hate it. Peacock TV. Paramount Plus. Here's my thing. Not everybody has or wants to have subscriptions to all of these streaming services and you may not even have the money to get all of these. So getting so watching football is becoming more and more expensive. And there are some matchups that people are just going to look at and say, "I'm not getting an Amazon Prime membership in order to watch the Vegas Raiders at the Kansas City Chiefs on Black Friday." They started out with strong matchups, but later on in years to come, people are going to look at some less favorable matchups on Netflix and say, "I'm not getting that just to watch one game a year. That just makes no sense." So I hope it gets to a point where people just stop watching when you need to get all of these streaming services because it's just getting ridiculous. Not everybody can afford it and also not everybody even wants to get Netflix or Amazon Prime Video or Paramount Plus or Peacock TV if they're just going to be watching one or two games maybe three a season. I just don't see that to be... I hope people just stop watching at that point and the NFL starts to notice. But the streaming platforms have been winning lately because everyone ends up getting these subscriptions because they don't want to miss out. So we'll see how all of that goes. That's all we have for scheduled content today. So with that being said, thank you for listening to us. Listen to our episodes at 7.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Tuesdays and five o'clock on Fridays. Listen to our episodes on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts and so much more. Also be sure to follow our Instagram @FumbleRuski_podcast and our TikTok @FumbleRuskiPod to keep both up with our latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise we'll see you next week over and out.