Packers Face Daunting Schedule in 2021

Assuming a 17-game schedule, the Green Bay Packers will have 10 matchups against playoff teams next season.

Bill Huber | Jan 31, 2021

GREEN BAY, Wis. – One reason why it will be more difficult for the Green Bay Packers to contend for a championship next season is because they are going to play a much more difficult schedule.

Obviously, things can change between now and when next season kicks off in September. And, as is the case on Wall Street, past performance is no guarantee of future results, so a team that was good in 2020 might not be good in 2021.

Nonetheless, with the NFL’s expected shift to a 17-game schedule in 2021 meaning a game reportedly against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Packers will play 10 games against playoff teams. And that doesn’t include road games at the San Francisco 49ers, who played in the Super Bowl last year but were gutted by injuries this year, and Arizona Cardinals, one of the up-and-coming teams.

Assuming a 17-game schedule, Green Bay’s games would come against opponents with a combined winning percentage of .542. For context, only five teams faced a more difficult schedule in 2020. Of that handful of teams, San Francisco’s 6-10 record was the best.

For additional context, the Packers played a slate of games against teams with a winning percentage of .428. That was by far the easiest in the NFL. Its opponents won a total of 109 games. Showing just how inexact the science of measuring strength of schedule, the Packers entered last season expected to face the 15th-most-difficult schedule, with those teams going a combined 128-126-2 (.504) in 2019.

The Packers’ 2021 Schedule

Home: Chicago Bears (8-8), Detroit Lions (5-11), Minnesota Vikings (7-9), Washington Football Team (7-9), Los Angeles Rams (10-6), Seattle Seahawks (12-4), Cleveland Browns (11-5) and Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4).

Total: 72-56. Winning percentage: .609. Games against playoff teams: Seahawks, Steelers, Browns, Rams, Bears and Washington.

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Away: Chicago Bears (8-8), Detroit Lions (5-11), Minnesota Vikings (7-9), New Orleans Saints (12-4), Arizona Cardinals (8-8), San Francisco 49ers (6-10), Baltimore Ravens (11-5) and Cincinnati Bengals (4-11-1).

Total: 61-66-1. Winning percentage: .480. Games against playoff teams: Bears, Saints and Ravens.

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Game 17: While NFL has not agreed to create a 17-game schedule, though it seems like a formality to help bolster revenue, it has agreed to the process of completing the schedule. That game will be an interconference matchup on a rotating divisional basis, with first-place team vs. first-place team, second-place team vs. second-place team, etc. According to SI.com’s Albert Breer, the NFC North would face the AFC West in 2021. That would mean a matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, who went 14-2 and will play in next week’s Super Bowl.

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Schedule total: 147-124-1. Winning percentage: .542. Game against playoff teams: 10.

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That is an incredibly challenging schedule, on paper, anyway, with the prospect of it getting more difficult with the expected resurgence of the 49ers.

Published Jan 31, 2021

BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.