Full list of quarterbacks Commanders will face on 2026 NFL schedule

If you had to reduce the strength of an NFL schedule to one factor, what would you choose?

Would it be the win/loss record from the previous season? Might it be the number of starters' games missed in a season? It is, of course, impossible to reduce the difficulty of an NFL schedule down to only one factor. In addition, that would be so reductionistic to propose that you could do such a thing.

However, there is one factor that I have found "helpful" in determining the strength of a schedule. Notice that "helpful" is not the sole factor in determining how strong/weak a schedule is. "Who is the opponent's starting quarterback? Or asked another way, "How good were the starting quarterbacks a team faced in a particular season?"

2020 comes to mind immediately. The Washington Commanders (then Football Team) went 7-9 in a year when the NFC East was down because of injuries to starting quarterbacks in Philadelphia and Dallas. But another reason Washington won seven games was the lack of quality in the quarterbacks they faced that season. In their seven wins the opposing quarterbacks were: Carson Wentz, Andy Dalton, Joe Burrow (injured and replaced by Ryan Finley), Andy Dalton, Ben Rothlisberger, Nick Mullens, Jalen Hurts (rookie, replaced by Nate Sudfeld). Why did we all conclude Washington was a good 7-9 team?