Ten teams with most difficult NFL strength of schedule, plus NFC North offseason grades

Welcome to the Friday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! 

Since Mother’s Day is this weekend, we’ve put together the mother of all newsletters today: Not only will we be taking our first look at each team’s strength of schedule, but we’re also going to rank the top new QB-WR/TE tandems in the NFL. And since we love making predictions, we’ll also be attempting to predict which teams will be playing on Thanksgiving. 

As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. If you need to get your mom something for Mother’s Day, signing her up for this NFL newsletter is really the perfect gift and that’s mostly because it’s free. 

1. 2025 strength of schedule: Good luck to the Giants

The release of the NFL schedule is just five days away and to celebrate that fact, we’re going to take a look at the teams with the most difficult strength of schedule heading into 2025. And now, this is the part where I have some bad news for Giants fans: Based on the final standings from 2024, your team will be going into the upcoming season with the toughest strength of schedule. 

The Giants home schedule is especially brutal with six of their eight games coming against teams that made the playoffs last year (Eagle, Commanders, Packers, Vikings, Chiefs and Chargers). They also play the 49ers and Cowboys. 

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the 10 most difficult schedules in 2025:

10 most difficult schedules (opponents combined record and winning percentage from 2024)
1. Giants: 166-123 (.574)
T-2. Bears: 165-124 (.571)
T-2. Lions: 165-124 (.571)
4. Eagles: 162-127 (.561)
T-5. Cowboys: 161-128 (.557)
T-5. Packers: 161-128 (.557)
T-5. Vikings: 161-128 (.557)
T-8. Commanders: 159-130 (.550)
9. Ravens: 154-135 (.533)
10. Steelers: 152-137 (.526)

The Lions arguably have the most brutal schedule: They’ll be facing 12 teams that finished with a winning record in 2024, which is the most in the NFL. They’ll also be facing 11 teams that made the playoffs last year, which is tied with the Eagles for the most.  

If you’re wondering who has the easiest strength of schedule, we’ll be revealing that on Monday along with our full strength of schedule story. 

2. Predicting every holiday game on the schedule

The release of the schedule is easily my favorite event of the NFL offseason, which is why I decided to do some predictions today. That’s right, I’m so obsessed with the schedule that I’m going to attempt to predict the matchups in some of the biggest games of the season. 

Let’s check out my predictions for Thanksgiving: 

Home team: Lions
Time: 12:30 p.m. ET/1 p.m. ET game (Fox)
Possible opponents: Bears, Packers, Vikings, Giants, Buccaneers, Browns, Steelers
Breakdown: The NFL clearly has a preference for this game: Over the past nine years, the Lions have either faced an NFC North rival (seven times) or an AFC team (two times), so it feels like the league will likely go with one of those two options once again. In 2023, the NFL put the Packers in this game during Jordan Love’s first full year as a starter. In 2024, the league put the Bears in this game during Caleb Williams‘ first year as a starter. In 2025, it wouldn’t be surprising if the league puts the Vikings in this game during what will be J.J. McCarthy’s first year as a starter. 
Predicted opponent: Vikings or Steelers

Home team: Cowboys
Time: 4:30 p.m. ET game (CBS)
Possible opponents: Giants, Eagles, Commanders, Packers, Vikings, Cardinals, Chiefs, Chargers
Breakdown: This is generally the most-watched regular-season game of the year and the numbers could go through the roof if the NFL decides to put the Chiefs here. Patrick Mahomes has played on Christmas and Black Friday in his career, but he hasn’t gotten the chance to play on Thanksgiving, so this could be a chance for the NFL to finally put him on Turkey Day. That being said, the Cowboys have faced a divisional opponent in three of the past four years, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see an NFC East team in this spot. 
Predicted opponent: Commanders or Chiefs

Home team: TBA
Time: 8:20 p.m. ET game (NBC)
Breakdown: Over the past five years, the prime-time Thanksgiving game has featured at least one team that made the playoffs in the prior season, so it seems like a lock that we’ll see at least one 2024 playoff team in this slot and possibly two. 
Predicted game: Broncos at Chargers or Seahawks at Rams

If you want more schedule predictions, don’t worry, we’ve got that. We’ve got predictions for the Christmas tripleheader and the Thursday night opener here. Remember, although we don’t know the schedule yet, we do know who each team will be playing and you can check out the home-and-away opponents for all 32 teams by heading here.

3. Ranking the new QB-WR/TE tandems around the NFL

Now that the NFL Draft is over, there are going to be a few offenses around the league that have a completely different look heading into the 2025 season. With that in mind, Garrett Podell decided to rank the top NEW quarterback and receiver tandems. The rules here are simple: This ranking is based on how productive a rookie pass catcher (receiver or tight end) might end up being with his new quarterback. 

Let’s check out the top three tandems:   

1. PACKERS
New tandems: QB Jordan Love and 23rd overall WR Matthew Golden & 87th overall WR Savion Williams
Garrett’s take: “Packers coach Matt LaFleur will likely insert Golden into Christian Watson’s deep-threat role, with Watson recovering from a torn ACL. The SEC’s co-receiving touchdowns leader in 2024 (nine) could thrive there in the Packers’ offense. Golden wasn’t the only receiver GM Brian Gutekunst gifted Love in the first three rounds of the 2025 draft. He also selected Williams, the TCU Swiss Army knife, with the 87th overall pick (third round). Williams is an athletic freak: he measured in at 6-4, 222 pounds and ran a 4.48 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine. His ceiling given those athletic traits is high.”

2. BUCCANEERS
New tandem: QB Baker Mayfield and 19th overall WR Emeka Egbuka
Garrett’s take: “Despite never being the Buckeyes’ No. 1 option in his four-year career, Egbuka left Ohio State as its all-time catches leader with 205. Egbuka has dependable hands and is outstanding out of the slot and over the middle of the field. He’ll start as Mayfield’s No. 3 behind Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, but they both dealt with injuries last season. Egbuka could rise higher on the depth chart should injuries strike to either veteran wideout once again.”

3. BEARS
New tandems: QB Caleb Williams and 10th overall TE Colston Loveland & 39th overall WR Luther Burden
Garrett’s take: “Chicago handed Williams two rookie weapons at the top of the draft with their first two picks. Loveland’s 582 yards receiving accounted for 34.7% of Michigan’s team receiving yards in 2024, the second-highest rate by any tight end in college football last season. He’s not a great blocker, but he’s a strong, fluid route runner over the middle. … Burden led the SEC in catches (192) during his three-year career at Missouri while racking up the second-most yards receiving (2,263) and receiving touchdowns (21) in the conference in that span.”

Garrett actually ranked a total of 10 new tandems and you can check out his full ranking here. 

4. Tom Brady ranks the players he hated getting hit by

Tom Brady spent 23 years in the NFL and during that time, he got hit a lot, and not surprisingly, there were some guys who he really hated getting hit by. During a recent appearance on the “Impaulsive” podcast, Brady revealed his list of the hardest hitters: 

Brady didn’t put those four guys in any particular order, except for one: He specifically noted that Lewis should be ranked first. 

“Ray Lewis was at the top,” Brady said, via Boston.com. “Ndamukong Suh, I didn’t like getting hit by him. JJ [Watt] wasn’t very fun to get hit by. Haloti Ngata, you remember him? He was about 340 pounds for the Ravens. He was massive.”

Although Brady got beat up by those guys, it was another player who gave him the biggest hit of his career. A few years ago, Brady said the biggest hit he ever took came from Nate Clements. After you see the hit (and you can see it here), you’ll probably understand why Brady thinks it was the most brutal hit of his career. 

5. NFL offseason grades: NFC North teams all earn at least a ‘B’

Over the past few days, we’ve been going around the NFL and grading every team based on how they’ve done this offseason. We’ve almost made it through all 32 teams, but we’re not quite there yet. After grading the AFC North on Thursday, we’re moving to the NFC North today: 

Let’s check out the grades: 

• Bears: A. “New head coach Ben Johnson and general manager Ryan Poles went to work beefing up Caleb Williams’ offensive line: they traded for Rams right guard Jonah Jackson and then subsequently dealt for two-time first-team All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney from the Chiefs for a 2026 fourth-round pick. The Bears pounced in free agency snapping up the best center available in ex-Falcons center Drew Dalman to a three-year, $42 million contract with $28 million guaranteed.“
• Vikings: A-. “Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah went to work in his first offseason in charge. He spent his team’s money like he just inherited his trust fund: The Vikings shelled out $296.59 million in free agency, the second most in the NFL behind only the New England Patriots ($364.68 million)”
• Packers: B+. “The Packers were undone by an inability to generate consistent offense, in large part because of pass protection or drops from wide receivers. General manager Brian Gutekunst went to work addressing those areas with the addition of longtime 49ers starting guard Aaron Banks in free agency and by using his first three 2025 draft picks on the offensive side of the ball: Texas wide receiver Matthew Golden, NC State offensive tackle Anthony Belton and TCU wide receiver Savion Williams.”
• Lions: B. “The Lions swapped cornerback Carlton Davis for D.J. Reed before signing mostly depth-chart fillers in free agency. Their draft addressed notable holes along the defensive and offensive lines while preparing for the likely loss of receiver Jameson Williams in a year or two. A steady offseason for a squad that has fully committed to its core and is coming off of the best regular season in the league from this past season.”

If you want the full explanation for each team’s grade, you can check out Garrett Podell’s story here.  

It’s always a busy time in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that’s happening, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. 

• Panthers release Jadeveon Clowney. The Panthers cut ties with Clowney on Thursday, which means the former No. 1 overall pick is now free to sign with any team. We took a look a few possible landing spots for Clowney and you can check that out here. The 32-year-old is going into his 12th NFL season and is coming off a year where he had 5.5 sacks with the Panthers. 
• Panthers 2024 second-round pick out for the year. Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks has been placed on the physically unable to perform list, which means he’s going to have to sit out the 2025 season. Brooks tore his ACL in Week 14 during a rookie year in 2024 where he only played in three games. We’ve got more details on his situation here. 
• YouTube is the front-runner to show Brazil game. Last year, the game was on Peacock, but this year, YouTube is currently the front-runner to land the game, The Athletic has reported. According to the report, this will be on regular YouTube and not YouTube TV, so anyone with access to YouTube would be able to watch the game. The Chargers will be the home team in Brazil game, which will be played on Friday, Sept. 5. Their opponent will be announced on Tuesday.
• Abdul Carter finally has a number. They say the third time is the charm and that’s the case for Carter, who will be wearing No. 51 this year, which was his third option. Carter originally wanted to wear No. 56, but that Lawrence Taylor wouldn’t give him permission. He then considered 11, but that’s retired for Phil Simms and the quarterback’s family shot down that idea. So he’s now taking the 5 from Taylor and the 1 from Simms and going with 51.