NFL releases 2013 Strength of Schedule list

4th. The answer you seek is that they have the 4th easiest schedule next year based off of the previous season's records for their 2013 opponents. Oakland's strength of schedule (SOS) rating this year is .469 because their opponents have a combined record of 120-136-0 for the 2012 season.

Though it isn't bad to have one of the easier schedules based off of the previous season, it can be a little misleading. The reason their schedule is so easy is because most of the division, besides the Denver Broncos, were not very good this past year.

When you are in the worst division from the previous year your SOS for the next year is going to be considered easy due to having played the other teams that were not good in your own division twice for that year.

Carolina Panthers
.543
Detroit Lions
.539
New Orleans Saints
.539
St. Louis Rams
.539
Baltimore Ravens
.535
Green Bay Packers
.533
Arizona Cardinals
.520
Miami Dolphins
.520
San Francisco 49ers
.520
Minnesota Vikings
.516
Seattle Seahawks
.516
Cincinnati Bengals
.508
Jacksonville Jaguars
.508
New England Patriots
.508
Atlanta Falcons
.504
Chicago Bears
.502
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
.500
Washington Redskins
.498
New York Jets
.496
Philadelphia Eagles
.496
Cleveland Browns
.492
Pittsburgh Steelers
.496
Tennessee Titans
.488
New York Giants
.480
Dallas Cowboys
.480
Buffalo Bills
.473
Houston Texans
.473
Kansas City Chiefs
.473

Oakland Raiders
.469

Indianapolis Colts
.461
San Diego Chargers
.457
Denver Broncos
.430

Its pretty much inevitable that somebody is going to complain that the Broncos have the easiest SOS for 2013 but the reason for that is clear. They were the only team in the AFC West that did well this past season and the combined records of the other 3 teams in the division were not good.

Those records get counted twice when computing their score and inevitably make them have the easiest considered schedule for next year. That is not NFL bias towards Peyton Manning, its simply that the other AFCW teams (Including the Raiders of course) did not have good seasons last year.

Another reason SOS is misleading is because it does not allow the chance for teams to improve. The strength of next year's schedule is not really actually going to go according to this list because some teams will be better and some teams will be worse. Hopefully the Raiders show just how much better a team can get from one year to the next!