The NFL announced the schedule for the 2015 season Tuesday night. They open up with 5 out of 7 on the road, but it doesn’t look nearly as bad after that. Let’s take a look at the Ravens opponents via WBAL:
The Baltimore Ravens 2015 Regular Season Schedule
Sep. 13 at Denver Broncos 4:25p CBS
Sep. 20 at Oakland Raiders 4:05p CBS
Sep. 27 Cincinnati Bengals 1:00p CBS
Oct. 1 at Pittsburgh Steelers 8:25p CBS/NFLN
Oct. 11 Cleveland Browns 1:00p CBS
Oct. 18 at San Francisco 49ers 4:25p CBS
Oct. 26 at Arizona Cardinals 8:30p ESPN
Nov. 1 San Diego Chargers 1:00p CBS
Nov. 8 BYE
Nov. 15 Jacksonville Jaguars 1:00p CBS
Nov. 22 St. Louis Rams 1:00p FOX
Nov. 30 at Cleveland Browns 8:30p ESPN
Dec. 6 at Miami Dolphins1:00p CBS
Dec. 13 Seattle Seahawks *8:30p NBC
Dec. 20 Kansas City Chiefs 1:00p CBS
Dec. 27 Pittsburgh Steelers *8:30p NBC
Jan. 3 at Cincinnati Bengals 1:00p CBS
Based on this schedule, I like the Ravens’ playoff chances.
I know. It’s WAY too early to make a statement like that. The draft hasn’t even happened yet. Teams still have free agency signings to make. We still need to see how they work together in training camp and preseason. We don’t know what the injury status of players like Dennis Pitta, Terrence Brooks, Brent Urban, and Kapron Lewis-Moore will look like.
I know all that, but let’s ignore what we don’t know and look at what we do know.
According to our friends at numberFire, the Ravens have a 3.65% easier schedule than the league average. Even though Baltimore will play two of the toughest divisions in the league in the AFC North and the NFC West, they still get two games against the Browns, a game against the Jaguars, and a game against the lowly Raiders. In numberFire’s rankings, those games outweigh the harder games against the Steelers, Bengals, Seahawks, and Broncos.
For perspective, the hardest schedule in the league is Green Bay’s, which is 8.25% harder than the league average. The weakest schedule in the NFL is Buffalo’s, which is 9.27% easier than the league average.
Based on current projections which account for the Ravens’ schedule, numberFire projects a 68.23% chance of the Ravens making the playoffs. In addition to that, they give Baltimore a 52.72% chance of winning the AFC North and a 7.31% chance of making the Super Bowl.
The current Vegas Super Bowl odds, according to VegasInsider.com, are 30/1 for the Ravens. These projections from numberFire give the Ravens a 219% better chance.
I’ll go with numberFire’s projections over Vegas’ odds. Their metrics cut through the opinions of the masses and give a much more accurate look at a team’s chances of winning it all.
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