Chiefs’ 2024 opponents look about average

With the Super Bowl behind us, let’s look at the teams Kansas City will play next season.

Following the end of the NFL regular season on January 7, it was possible to calculate each team’s opponents for the 2024 season. But at that moment, teams like the Kansas City Chiefs were a little busy with the postseason.

So now that the team’s 2023 season has ended with a second straight Super Bowl victory, let’s take a look at the club’s opponents for the coming season.

Under the NFL scheduling formula, each franchise plays every team its own division twice. It also plays every team in one other AFC division and every team in one other NFC division. This accounts for 14 games of the 17-game schedule. These divisions rotate every year.

Then, each franchise plays the team from the remaining two divisions of its own conference with the same division finish in the previous season — and the team in a rotating division of the other conference with the same division finish.

So in 2024, the Chiefs will play teams from the AFC West (twice), the AFC North and the NFC South — and then 2023’s first-place finishers from the AFC South, AFC East and NFC West.

Back in January, the NFL announced which games would be at home or on the road. Sometime in May, we’ll learn exactly when all these games will be played. But here’s what we know so far.

Home: Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans.

Away: Broncos, Raiders, Chargers, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers.

Kansas City will play seven of its 17 games against 2023 playoff teams: the Ravens, Buccaneers and Texans at home, plus the Browns, Steelers, Bills and 49ers on the road. (In 2023, the Chiefs played eight games against 2022 playoff teams). The Chiefs will face the first, second, fourth, fifth and seventh AFC seeds from 2023, along with the NFC’s first and fourth seeds.

2024 Opponent schedule difficulty

Still, based on 2023 season records, the Chiefs’ 2024 opponents have an average record of 0.5018. That ties the Bengals as the 16th-easiest regular-season schedule. Based on 2023 regular-season records, the Falcons (0.4532) have the easiest schedule, while the Browns (0.5466) have the hardest.

Of course, preseason expectations of schedule difficulty tend to be (mostly) inaccurate. But until some games are played, it’s pretty much all we have to go on. One thing is sure: Kansas City head coach Andy Reid and his staff will “look forward to the challenge” of playing every one of the team’s 2024 opponents.