Analyst Warren Sharp does not like the Pittsburgh Steelers’ schedule and believes they are at a significant disadvantage after Week 7.
Sharp reveals the Steelers have the toughest NFL schedule after Week 7, and their rest disadvantage is the second toughest in the league, too. In five of their six biggest games, the Steelers have the active rest disadvantage, and their Week 5 bye heavily contributes to that.
In Sharp’s projections, after Week 10, the Steelers play just one team, which is expected to finish with less than 8 wins, and the Cleveland Browns in Week 17.
Sharp notes that the Steelers had a nearly identical layout last season. During that time period, they also face one of the best teams in the NFC, the Detroit Lions, on the road, much like they did when they battled with the Eagles.
The Steelers will have the ninth-hardest schedule in the league, but that is much easier than last year’s, where they were projected to have the toughest schedule in the NFL.
Sharp’s forecasts use Vegas’ projected win totals and other advanced metrics to try and predict the hardest schedules in the NFL. Last year, the Steelers were far and away the toughest schedule, and that held, with a brutal run to end the season.
This year, they have a similar brutal run to end the year, but last year’s stretch had a few differences. For one, they played on two short weeks in that period, and only played on Sunday twice.
Pittsburgh is playing on the second-place schedule for the AFC North, which will give them the draw of the Seattle Seahawks, Indianapolis Colts, and Los Angeles Chargers for the open holes on their schedule.