2019 NFL schedule rankings NFC East Cowb

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It's been more than 20 years since the have repeated as division champions in the NFC East, and although the drought could finally end this year, don't look for that to happen, and that's because the Cowboys have the most difficult schedule in the division, at least according to our rating.According to our formula, the Cowboys should probably be worried about the , and that's because Philadelphia has the easiest schedule in the NFC this year. With the regular season still three months away, you might be wondering how we already know that the Eagles have the easiest schedule in the NFC, and that's because we went ahead and ranked all 32 schedules.The easiest way to rank each Chris Tierney Jersey schedule in the , but the problem with going that route is that it's not exactly the most efficient way to rate schedule difficulty, which is why we went ahead and devised a formula.So how does this formula work? Glad you asked.First, we looked at odds from the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. Since the oddsmakers in Vegas seem to know what they're doing, we incorporated their odds into our formula, which didn't work out so well for the Cowboys, who are the only team in the NFC East this year that has to play both participants from last year's Super Bowl ( and ). Another part of the formula is the first three games of the season. Those are going to be weighted slightly more than the other 13 games because they tend to be a good indication of how a team will play throughout the year. Basically, teams that go winle s in their first three games almost never make the playoffs. Since 1990, only four teams have started 0-3 and made the postseason (1992 ,1995 , 1998 , 2018 ). Although the Texans pulled off the feat last year, there's a reason it's only happened four times in 29 seasons, and that's because it's nearly impo sible to pull off.Although an 0-3 start almost always means you'll mi s the postseason, 3-0 usually means Tommy Wingels Jersey good things in the NFL: From 1990 to 2010, 75.9 percent 3-0 made the playoffs. Those odds drop to 54.9 percent for 2-1 teams and 23.3 percent for 1-2 teams. This basically means that if your favorite team has a murderer's row in the first three weeks of the season, you should probably just give up on 2019 and start planning for the 2020 draft, and yes, I'm staring directly at fans when I say that. Not only do they have the most difficult opening three weeks of any team in the NFC East, but it's also the second most difficult in the entire NFL, according to our formula. Basically, the Redskins might be eliminated from playoff contention before we get out of the first month of the season. Speaking of the first three games, it's probably worth nothing that starting off the year with a winning record through the first three weeks has almost become a prerequisite for getting into a conference title game. Over the past four seasons, 15 of the 16 teams that took part in the AFC and NFC title games started the season at 2-1 or better. That doesn't nece sarily mean your favorite team will make it if they start 2-1, it just means they almost certainly won't make it if they start 1-2 or 0-3. (Since 2015, the one team that bucked this trend was the 2018 Patriots, but the Patriots have bucked a lot of trends over the years and it's unlikely that another Tomas Hertl Jersey team would be able to emulate them).On the other end of the schedule, the reason the final three games of the season aren't being given more weight is because the final games don't always mean the same for everybody, especially when a team is resting its starters. The went 0-3 in their final three games in 2009 and still won the Super Bowl. The went 1-2 in their final three in 2012 and also won the Super Bowl. Finally, each individual game on each team's schedule is also being ranked based on difficulty. For instance, the have to travel to New England for a Thursday game in Week 6, which means they only have three days to prepare for the Patriots. On the other hand, not only do the Eagles get to play the Patriots at home, but Philadelphia will also be coming off a bye that week, which means extra prep time for their Super Bowl LII rematch.From a strength of schedule standpoint, the game is the same: Both teams are playing the Patriots. However, the Giants game against New England is viewed as more difficult in our formula, because they have to go on the road to play a game on short rest. On the other hand, the Eagles get to play the game at home, where they're 12-4 over the past two seasons. Those individual nuances are factored into the schedule ratings.Alright, that's enough rambling, let's get to these rankings.Wait, one more thing, here's how things are going to work with our schedule rankings: On Tuesdays and Thursdays over the next few weeks, we'll be going division by division to rank every schedule in the NFL. After hitting the AFC over the past two weeks -- you can click here for the , , and -- we'll be moving on to the NFC this week with the NFC East (June 25) and NFC South (June 27). We'll then close things out during the first week of July with the NFC North (July 2) and NFC West Justin Braun Jersey (July 4). Ranking the NFC East schedules 4. Philadelphia EaglesSchedule difficulty rating:91.75Overall NFL schedule difficulty ranking: 28th (Easiest in the NFC)Easiest stretch: A big reason the Eagles ranked as having the least difficult schedule in the NFC is because their month of December ranked as one of the easiest ones in the NFL. There's a good chance Philly could stumble into December and that's because they end November with the Patriots and . However, even if they lose Patrick Marleau Jersey both of those games, it's still completely po sible that they could end the season on a five-game winning streak, and that's because their December looks like this: At , Giants, at Redskins, Cowboys, at Giants.For one, they get to play the Giants twice, which should be a huge confidence booster for a team that has gone 9-1 against New York over the past five years. Also, the Eagles will get to open the month against the Dolphins, a team that Vegas -- and nearly everyone else -- views as one of the worst in the NFL. The most difficult game in this stretch will come against the Cowboys, but the good news for the Eagles is that they get to play that at home. Roughest stretch:As you'll find out below in our "Weird scheduling note," the Eagles are the only team in the NFL this year that's being forced to play a true three-game road trip. However, that's not even their roughest stretch. The ugliest part of their schedule starts immediately after that road trip during a three-game home-stand that might be the toughest home-stand that any team in the NFL will play this season. Starting in Week 9, the Eagles will host , and as if that's not bad enough, their next two games after that are against the Patriots (Week 11) and Seahawks (Week 12). The good news for