Patriots 32nd in Strength of Schedule?

the schedule works like this...(and I haven't looked at their schedule)

You play your division foes twice (6 games), you play another division's foes once (aka the AFC North - 4 games) and you play an opposing conference's division once as well (say NFC West - 4 games)

That's 14 games...and the outside division games are rotated...I believe then the remaining two games are scheduled on some type of basis amongst divisional positions...i.e. the pats would play 2 other division winners in the AFC...which is why they always end up playing the Colts. Not sure if they're required to switch this up at all or if its on a rotation, but that's how it generally works

Second, the NFL division rotation is set waaaaay in advance.

Thrid, strength of schedule based upon last year's records is meaningless. There is no way that the The Pats and Dolphins will have 16 wins and 1 win respectively.

But seriously it's not like the NFL was trying to give the Pats a cake schedule, but when you play in that division and the rotation has you playing the NFC West, that's basically 10 cake games. Then the AFC West is pretty weak outside San Diego, and the two teams assigned to the Pats were the Colts and Steelers.