I was reading through SI today and I saw that the majority of the teams that played the Lions had so called "easy" schedules. I then decided to look at the Lions schedule and figure out where their opponents were placed in terms of schedule strength. Check it out:
8. New Orleans Saints
16. Washington Redskins
22 & 23. Cincinnati Bengals & St. Louis Rams
24. Seattle Seahawks
25. Cleveland Browns
26. San Francisco 49ers
27. Arizona Cardinals
28. Baltimore Ravens
29. Pittsburgh Steelers
30. Green Bay Packers
31. Minnesota Vikings
32. Chicago Bears
Talk about padding statistics lol. Of course the NFC North teams have the "easiest" schedules because we play the Lions twice. Alas, I know these rankings are complete BS as nobody can predict what's going to happen, but I would be interested in seeing strength of schedules recalculated for all teams minus the lions. I know it'd be difficult because you'd then have to replace all games that teams play with the Lions as a second bye week or play a different team but it would be cool to see the difference.