Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals players (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

The excellent folks at NFL Research have broken down the strength of schedule for each team as the sports world waits for the announcement of the 2024 NFL schedule on May 15th and things are not boding well for the Cleveland Browns.

Ahead of the official schedule release, we are already getting strength of schedule percentages, and things are looking quite bleak for teams that are hoping to have a good 2024 campaign.

It’s going to be a difficult season for teams in the AFC North, and one team has taken the cake with the most challenging schedule out of everybody.

Going into the 2024 season, the Cleveland Browns have the most challenging schedule. The win percentage of their opponents from the previous season is .547, which is significantly higher than that of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens (.536 and.533).

The most brutal schedule is, naturally, a dynamic objective. It is impossible to accurately forecast injuries or how challenging a game would seem three months from now. The Cleveland Browns will need to be at the top of their game in 2024 if they hope to make it back to the postseason, but there are valuable ways to project what the future may contain.

The AFC North was the talk of the league the previous season when all four of its teams finished above .500 in the division, and three of them—the Ravens, Steelers, and Browns—went on to play in the postseason. The Cleveland Browns and Steelers were eliminated in the Wild Card stage of the playoffs, and only the Ravens of the AFC North were able to win.

Following Deshaun Watson’s season-ending injury, the Cleveland Browns emerged as the most unexpected playoff team in the AFC North thanks to their chemistry with Joe Flacco. The Chiefs, Chargers, Cowboys, Giants, Dolphins, Bengals, Steelers, and Ravens are among the teams they play at home. The teams they play away from home are the Steelers, Bengals, Ravens, Commanders, Broncos, Raiders, Eagles, Jaguars, and Saints.

Cleveland Browns Hoping To Make Deeper Playoff Run In 2024

Cleveland Browns huddle (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
The Browns have had only four winning seasons (2002, 2007, 2020, and 2023), three playoff appearances (2002, 2020, and 2023), and one playoff win (2020) since returning to Cleveland in 1999, via Wikipedia.

The current team is stacked and hopes to get back into the playoff picture and make a deep run.