A look at SOS - strength of schedule

Strength of schedule determines draft order in case of a tie. It can make the difference between picking 6th or 11th. This board has been interested in low-round comp picks. If the Giants fall in with a group of teams with the same record, the SOS can produce a change in draft position that could be considered more valuable than that.

When you look at an SOS at the end of the season you'll a win and loss total adding up to 256. For example the SOS for the Giants last year was 133-123.

Given the way the NFL is schedule is done, each team has a 63-63 result built in to their SOS. This is because the teams on the schedule are often playing each other (e.g. DAL vs WAS today), which counts as 1-1 against SOS regardless of which team wins or if there is a tie. So that takes care of 126 out of the 256 SOS results.

That leaves 130 possible wins that could be picked up over the course of the season. Some games provide 2 wins (e.g. if PHI beats ATL tonight) and some provide 1 (e.g. if NYJ beat CLE). Note that picking up wins the count towards your SOS hurts draft position.

The Giants SOS is 17-12 so far, which is unfavorable. If PHI
beats ATL it would go up to 19-12. (The SOS for draft order is based on the records this year, not last year). Typically if you finish with a poor record (especially a poor division record), your SOS will be over .500 because you are handing wins to teams on your schedule. But it doesn't always happen that way.

Anyway, it is good for our division rivals to lose and for the AFC East to lose as well. Just another reason to root against PHI.