Kansas City Chiefs 2026 Strength of Schedule: Tied for 27th-Hardest in the NFL
The Kansas City Chiefs are tied for the 27th-hardest schedule in the NFL for 2026: their 17 opponents average 8.21 projected wins, and 10 of them are projected winning teams, 5 of those projected for 10 wins or more.
Kansas City Chiefs 2026 schedule
| Wk | Opponent | Opp Strength | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Broncos | Winning | 7 |
| 2 | Colts | 6 | |
| 3 | Dolphins | 7 | |
| 4 | Raiders | 7 | |
| 5 | Bye week | ||
| 6 | Chargers | Winning | 14 (+7) |
| 7 | Seahawks | 10+ win | 7 |
| 8 | Broncos | Winning | 7 |
| 9 | Jets | 7 | |
| 10 | Falcons | 7 | |
| 11 | Cardinals | 7 | |
| 12 | Bills | 10+ win | 4 |
| 13 | Rams | 10+ win | 7 |
| 14 | Bengals | 10+ win | 10 (+3) |
| 15 | Patriots | Winning | 8 |
| 16 | 49ers | 10+ win | 6 |
| 17 | Chargers | Winning | 7 |
| 18 | Raiders | 7 | |
Toughest stretch
Weeks 12-14: at Bills, at Rams, at Bengals. Three straight projected winning teams, all three projected for 10 wins or more.
Softest stretch
Weeks 2-4: Colts, at Dolphins, at Raiders. None of the three is a projected winning team.
Rest: where the Chiefs sit
Across the 2026 season the Chiefs are down 2 days of rest on their opponents across the seventeen games. 3 games come at a rest deficit of three days or more, and 2 come 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.
Chiefs schedule questions
Do the Chiefs have a hard schedule in 2026?
By market win totals, no. The Chiefs are tied for the 27th-hardest schedule in the league — their 17 opponents average 8.21 projected wins, against a league average of 8.50 — and 10 of those opponents are projected winning teams.
When is the Chiefs bye week in 2026?
The Chiefs are on bye in week 5 of the 2026 regular season.
What is the toughest stretch of the Chiefs 2026 schedule?
Weeks 12 through 14, when the Chiefs play at Bills, at Rams, at Bengals — all three projected winning teams.
Where the Chiefs rank
Kansas City Chiefs are tied for the 27th-hardest schedule of the 32. The Cardinals have the hardest at 9.32, the Lions the easiest at 7.79. All 32 schedules ranked.
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