The NFL schedule has been released and you've quickly studied the 16-game slate of your favorite team and their biggest rivals. Have you found any potential roadblocks provided by the schedule-makers? Of course, no fan base should be getting too upset. The NFL schedule is a labor of love, concocted over a period of months by a group of individuals who lock themselves in a room in the league's Park Avenue home office. The formula is relatively simple: Six games are played against division opponents. Eight games are based on a rotation of out-of-division games. The final two games match up conference teams that finished in the same position the season before. For example: The (who finished fourth in the AFC East) get fellow cellar-dwellers in the and . The order in which these games are laid out is where potential advantages and disadvantages come into play. With that in mind, here are some teams that face added challenges in 2015: Falcons, Bills, Dolphins and Jaguars It's hard to win outside your building in the NFL. Only six teams had a winning record on the road, and if you throw out the (a head-scratching 8-0 aberration), no team escaped their road slate with le s than three lo ses. This Jon Gaines Ii Jersey isn't great news for the four teams above, who all have a three-game stretch of road matchups. The good news: The went 3-0 in the same situation a season ago. Hope! Pittsburgh Steelers At the time of 's impending suspension, how the would love to avoid getting the on the road in the Week 1 kickoff game. . But the real concern for the is their post-bye schedule. Here's what they have after Week 11: at Seattle, home to , at Cincinnati, home to Denver, at Baltimore, at Cleveland. Ouch. Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears It ain't easy sharing a division with the . For the and , things get trickier when you factor in schedules that present early challenges. Chicago opens the season at home against Green Bay, then hosts the before hitting the road to face the . Those three teams went a combined 35-13 last season. The , meanwhile, open with three road matchups in four weeks (San Diego, Minnesota and Seattle). The one game that's not on the road is a Week 3 matchup against the . Not a gimme to be found. Carolina Panthers The aren't known for getting off to fast starts in the era, but that better change in 2015. After a highly manageable first four games (at Jacksonville, Houston, New Orleans, at Tampa Bay), Carolina gets an early bye in Week 5. They come back to a war of attrition: at Seattle, , (Monday night), . If Carolina isn't careful, they could be buried at midseason. Then again, that didn't stop them last year. NFC West The NFC West, even when factoring in the ' arduous offseason, remains one of the most competitive divisions in the NFL. Battles will be fierce within that group of four, but the West will also have to contend with the AFC North, which fielded three playoff teams a season ago in the , and . The latest Podcast grading the primetime games and highlighting the Week 1 matchups. Find more content on . Verone Mckinley Iii Jersey