Feb. 8, 2026, 1:07 p.m. CT<\/p>\n
For the first time in the DeMeco Ryans era, the Houston Texans<\/a> won’t play a first-place schedule in 2026.<\/p>\n Following a 12-5 record in 2025, the Texans finished second in the AFC, as the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>‘ 13-4 record netted them the title of worst-to-first under first-year coach Liam Coen. Still, Houston got the last laugh as a dominant 30-6 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers kept its season alive for another week. Meanwhile, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills<\/a> ended the Trevor Lawrence-led roster’s opportunity to take control of the divisional round.<\/p>\n Was this a good thing? Overall, yes. Houston won’t have to face off against division winners like the Super Bowl-bound New England Patriots or Denver Broncos<\/a> next season. Still, battles against the Bills and Los Angeles Chargers could be a reason why a second straight division title goes to someone else in the AFC South.<\/p>\n Looking ahead to the 2026 season, the Texans have the 26th-most difficult strength of schedule in the NFL (based on last year’s results). With matchups against the NFC East and AFC North as divisional foes, Houston’s opponents had a win-loss percentage of .474 (which is beyond easier than last year’s .547). Houston will play six games against playoff teams from last season and three games against MVP quarterbacks, including Allen and Baltimore Ravens<\/a>‘ Lamar Jackson.<\/p>\n The Texans also are expected to take on an improved Tennessee Titans roster under new head coach Robert Saleh, along with a promising New York Giants squad under second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart and new head coach John Harbaugh.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Here’s every\u00a0NFL team’s 2026 strength of schedule<\/a>, ranked from most difficult to easiest, as the 2025 season comes to a close with Super Bowl LX.<\/p>\n NFL 2026 strength of schedule1.\u00a0Chicago Bears<\/a>\u00a0(.550)2. Miami Dolphins<\/a> (.542)3. Arizona Cardinals (.538)3. Green Bay Packers<\/a> (.538)5. Kansas City Chiefs (.536)6. New England Patriots (.531)7. Las Vegas Raiders (.529)8. Buffalo Bills (.528)9. Los Angeles Chargers (.522)10. Carolina Panthers (.521)11. Minnesota Vikings<\/a> (.519)12. New York Jets (.517)13. Los Angeles Rams (.516)14. Seattle Seahawks (.514)15. Denver Broncos (.512)16. Washington Commanders (.502)17. New York Giants (.498)18. San Francisco 49ers<\/a> (.497)19. Pittsburgh Steelers (.495)20. Dallas Cowboys (.493)21. Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> (.491)22. Jacksonville Jaguars (.490)23. Philadelphia Eagles (.481)24. Baltimore Ravens (.479)25. Tennessee Titans (.476)26. Houston Texans (.474)<\/a>27. Detroit Lions (.467)28. Atlanta Falcons (.465)28. Indianapolis Colts (.465)30. Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> (.450)31. New Orleans Saints<\/a> (.434)32. Cleveland Browns (.429)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 8, 2026, 1:07 p.m. CT For the first time in the DeMeco Ryans era, the Houston Texans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[95878,7,221,253,2368,6,96520,96521,95882,95887,95898,97087,96033,96089,95913,96679,95886,95976,95953,95936,96705,95935,96682,95951,95988,96129,97021,95888,96683,96685,95895,96681,96686,96680,96687,96684,95899,95975,96090,96177,95902,95883,97971,96239,222,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-739853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-texans","12":"tag-houstontexans","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-sstssportsnfltexans","15":"tag-sstsntexans","16":"tag-tagamerican-football","17":"tag-tagamerican-football-conference","18":"tag-tagbaltimore-ravens","19":"tag-tagbreaking-news-social","20":"tag-tagbuffalo-bills","21":"tag-tagchicago-bears","22":"tag-tagcincinnati-bengals","23":"tag-tagdemeco-ryans","24":"tag-tagdenver-broncos","25":"tag-taggreen-bay-packers","26":"tag-taghouston-texans","27":"tag-tagjacksonville-jaguars","28":"tag-taglamar-jackson","29":"tag-tagliam-coen","30":"tag-tagmadden-nfl","31":"tag-tagmiami-dolphins","32":"tag-tagminnesota-vikings","33":"tag-tagnew-orleans-saints","34":"tag-tagnfc-east","35":"tag-tagnfl","36":"tag-tagnfl-draft","37":"tag-tagnfl-films","38":"tag-tagnfl-hub","39":"tag-tagnfl-junkies","40":"tag-tagnfl-mvp","41":"tag-tagnfl-overreactions","42":"tag-tagnfl-playoffs","43":"tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","44":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","45":"tag-tagrobert-saleh","46":"tag-tagsan-francisco-49ers","47":"tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","48":"tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","49":"tag-tagsports-news","50":"tag-tagsuper-bowl-60","51":"tag-tagtampa-bay-buccaneers","52":"tag-texans","53":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}