As the 2018 Regular Season has come to an end, we, as fans, can (somewhat) look forward to 2019 as our home and away opponents are now set. As you may notice (as many Chiefs fans have), there is one glaring detail: we travel to New England for the third straight year.

Now, before you grab your pitchforks, your tin foil hats, and cry "CONSPIRACY!", let us break this down.

Each season: You play six games in your division, one home and one away per team.

Your division will play four games against a division in your conference, on a three year rotation, with two home and two away. Home and away are rotational, as well. For instance, we will play the AFC South, with home games against the Colts and the Texans, and away games against the Titans and the Jaguars. If you look at the 2016 schedule, we were home against the Titans and Jaguars and away against the Colts and Texans. Our rotation is North, South, and East.

Your division will play four games against a division not in your conference, on a four year rotation, with two home and two away. As with the conference foes, these are on rotation. For instance, we will play the NFC North, with home games against the Packers and the Vikings, and away games against the Bears and the Lions. If you look at the 2015 schedule, we were home against the Bears and the Lions (though played in London, it was technically a home game for us) and away against the Packers and the Vikings. Our rotation is North, South, East and West. (This is likely how all divisions are set, but I have not verified that)

The last two games are set by placement within the division. You will play the two in conference teams that finished in the same place as you that are not in rotation. Home and away are on rotation, but set up slightly different. Each division will host another division for two years then switch after the divisions have played, playing away for two years. In 2019, AFC West teams will host AFC North teams and be away for AFC East teams.

Now, seeing this, we can look back at how we've been scheduled in relation to the Patriots since our last home game in 2014. In that season, we finished second in our division. In 2015, we played the entire AFC North, hosted the Bills (finished second in the AFC East in 2014), and played at the Texans (finished second in the AFC South in 2014). We finished second in 2015, so in 2016 we hosted the Jets (finished second in the AFC East). 2017 was our rotation with the AFC East, and since we played the Patriots at home in 2014, we played them away. In 2017 and 2018, both us and the Patriots won our divisions, so the Patriots draw the us at home for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. This will again swap in 2020, where we will host the Patriots, and will host our AFC East opponents in 2021 and 2022.

One cool (and I'd wager intentional) component this formula brings is fairness. You will hear many fans say "division winner schedules are harder," but that is simply not true. It seems as such when you think that division winners draw two more division winners than the rest of the division. What this thinking fails to account for is that your division plays you. Each team will play 4 division winners, 4 second place, 4 third place, and 4 last place teams. For this, we'll look at the Chiefs (first place in the AFC West) and the Raiders (last place in the AFC West). Our 4 division leaders are the Patriots, Bears, Texans, and Ravens. Second place teams are the Chargers 2x, Colts, and Vikings. Third place teams are Broncos 2x, Titans, and Packers. Last place teams are Raiders 2x, Jaguars and Lions. Now looking at the Raiders, their 4 first place teams are Chiefs 2x, Texans, and Bears. Second place teams are Chargers 2x, Colts, and Vikings. Third place teams are Broncos 2x, Titans, and Packers. Last place teams are Jets, Bengals, Jaguars, and Lions.

With all that said, this is how the schedule has seemingly been since the 2002 realignment and will likely stay. The NFL could change things moving forward, but I don't see that happening as this algorithm is as impartial as possible.