Arizona Cardinals 2026 Strength of Schedule: Hardest in the NFL
The Arizona Cardinals have the hardest schedule in the NFL for 2026: their 17 opponents average 9.32 projected wins, and 12 of them are projected winning teams, 9 of those projected for 10 wins or more.
Arizona Cardinals 2026 schedule
| Wk | Opponent | Opp Strength | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chargers | Winning | 7 |
| 2 | Seahawks | 10+ win | 7 |
| 3 | 49ers | 10+ win | 7 |
| 4 | Giants | 7 | |
| 5 | Lions | 10+ win | 7 |
| 6 | Rams | 10+ win | 7 (+1) |
| 7 | Broncos | Winning | 7 |
| 8 | Cowboys | Winning | 7 (+1) |
| 9 | Seahawks | 10+ win | 7 (+1) |
| 10 | Rams | 10+ win | 7 |
| 11 | Chiefs | 10+ win | 7 |
| 12 | Commanders | 7 (+1) | |
| 13 | Eagles | 10+ win | 7 |
| 14 | Bye week | ||
| 15 | Jets | 14 (+7) | |
| 16 | Saints | 7 | |
| 17 | Raiders | 7 | |
| 18 | 49ers | 10+ win | 7 |
Toughest stretch
Weeks 9-11: at Seahawks, Rams, at Chiefs. Three straight projected winning teams, all three projected for 10 wins or more.
Softest stretch
Weeks 15-17: Jets, at Saints, Raiders. None of the three is a projected winning team.
Rest: where the Cardinals sit
Across the 2026 season the Cardinals are up 1 day of rest on their opponents across the seventeen games. 3 games come at a rest deficit of three days or more, and 1 comes with a three-day edge the other way. Rest is zero-sum across the league — every day one team is rested is a day its opponent was not — so these net out to nothing across all 32 teams.
How this is measured
Opponent strength here is the betting market's 2026 win total, not last season's record — a forward projection that already prices in the draft, free agency and coaching changes, and that carries none of the luck baked into a won-lost record.
Read the spread before the rank. Across the whole league, hardest schedule to easiest covers about 1.5 win-total points spread over seventeen games — real, but small. Every win total in the market ends in a half-win and every schedule is seventeen games, so two schedules one place apart in the table differ by about 0.06 of a projected win, which is why 24 of the 32 teams share a rank with somebody else. Strength of schedule is a tiebreaker between two teams you already rate evenly. It is not a reason to move one of them.
Cardinals schedule questions
Do the Cardinals have a hard schedule in 2026?
By market win totals, yes. The Cardinals have the hardest schedule in the league — their 17 opponents average 9.32 projected wins, against a league average of 8.50 — and 12 of those opponents are projected winning teams.
When is the Cardinals bye week in 2026?
The Cardinals are on bye in week 14 of the 2026 regular season.
What is the toughest stretch of the Cardinals 2026 schedule?
Weeks 9 through 11, when the Cardinals play at Seahawks, Rams, at Chiefs — all three projected winning teams.
Where the Cardinals rank
That is the top of the league. At the other end, the Lions face the easiest slate at 7.79, a gap of 1.53 win-total points across the whole league. All 32 schedules ranked.
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