Browns 2024 strength of schedule: A tough road ahead

Three of the top 4 tough schedules belong to the AFC North

The Cleveland Browns schedule won’t be officially released for a while but we know who will be on their schedule as the second-place team in the AFC North. Besides the normal division rivalries, the AFC North will face off with the AFC West and NFC East next year.

That means Cleveland will be one of only a couple of cities to host both Harbaugh brothers.

While a lot will change about teams’ rosters between now and the start of the 2024 NFL season, we can analyze schedule difficulty based on this year’s records. NFL free agency and the NFL draft, along with trades, could drastically alter next year’s schedule, as will injuries, but, for now, the Browns have the most difficult schedule in the NFL next year:

That three of the four teams from the AFC North, the ones that made the playoffs, are sitting at the top makes sense. The Baltimore Ravens have to play teams with better records in 2023 than both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns but the other two have to play the Ravens, who had the best record in the NFL at 13-4, twice.

How we evaluate the Browns schedule will change as their opponents change. For now, 2024 looks like a tough one for the orange and brown-clad folks.