2026 season

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.

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Cardinals 24, Giants 36 — Week 4: Fourth and Four, Ninety-Eight Back

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What is left, through Week 5

The opponents the Cardinals have left rate plus 0.043 net expected points added per play between them — offence minus what their defences allow — which is 4th hardest of the 32 schedules that can be rated so far.

Through Week 5 · Data via nflverse · 12 of 12 remaining opponents rated

Arizona Cardinals 2026 schedule

Arizona Cardinals 2026 regular-season schedule with each opponent's projected strength and the rest days going into the game
Wk	Opponent	Opp Strength (Aug)	Kickoff ET	Rest
1	at Chargers	Winning	Sun 4:25p	7
2	vs Seahawks	10+ win	Sun 4:25p	7 (-4)
3	at 49ers	10+ win	Sun 4:05p	7
4	at Giants	—	Sun 1:00p	7
5	vs Lions	10+ win	Sun 4:25p	7
6	at Rams	10+ win	Sun 4:05p	7 (+1)
7	vs Broncos	Winning	Sun 4:05p	7 (-3)
8	at Cowboys	Winning	Sun 1:00p	7 (+1)
9	at Seahawks	10+ win	Sun 4:25p	7 (+1)
10	vs Rams	10+ win	Sun 4:05p	7
11	at Chiefs	10+ win	Sun 1:00p	7
12	vs Commanders	—	Sun 4:25p	7 (+1)
13	vs Eagles	10+ win	Sun 4:05p	7 (-3)
14	Bye week
15	vs Jets	—	Sun 4:05p	14 (+7)
16	at Saints	—	Sun 1:00p	7
17	vs Raiders	—	Sun 4:05p	7
18	vs 49ers	10+ win	Sun 1:00p	7

Opponent strength is the opponent's 2026 market win total, bucketed: “10+ win” is a win total of 10.5 or better, “Winning” is 9.5 or better. Rest is days since that team last played, with the edge over the opponent in brackets. Kickoff times are Eastern and highlighted when the game starts at or after 8:00pm — the Cardinals have no primetime games. The Cardinals are on bye in week 14.

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.

Primetime: 2026 night games

No Cardinals game is scheduled to kick off at or after 8:00pm Eastern in 2026, which makes them one of only five teams in the league with none. That is against a league average of 3.4, across 55 night games on the 2026 calendar.

Counts are AS SCHEDULED. Flex scheduling moves games into and out of the evening windows during the season, so an in-season count is only current as of the last time this artifact was regenerated.

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.

A rest gap only turns up in the record when it is bye-sized. Across regular-season games since 1999, a team coming off at least seven more days of rest than its opponent has won 53.6 percent (645 games); at a three-to-six day edge the rested team has won 49.6 percent, which is no edge at all. Rest is a margin, not a mover.

How this is measured

Opponent strength here is this season's net expected points added per play — a team's offence minus what its defence allows, through Week 5. The betting market stops quoting win totals once games are played, so the August line below is kept as a labelled prior rather than used as the ranking.

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.

How many primetime games do the Cardinals have in 2026?

None as scheduled. No Cardinals game kicks off at or after 8:00pm Eastern in 2026. Flex scheduling can move games into and out of the evening windows.

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.

Arizona Cardinals podcast and season preview · Cardinals running back depth chart · All 2026 bye weeks

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