2024 NFL Schedule: Everything Fantasy Football Managers Need to Know

The NFL released its full schedule on Wednesday and the first thing I wanted to know was when the teams weren’t playing.

When you enjoy fantasy football, off weeks are essential.

Let’s establish some rules for the bye week in advance. I think it’s crazy to have a draft with a heavy bias towards off weeks. The future is unwritten and unknowable. The list you came up with today (or even in August or September) can and often will look radically different as the weeks roll into your life. Bye weeks can be a tie-breaker on draft day, but it’s often a mistake to pass them up.

Still, we need to do a little planning. So let’s first look at the eight weeks off for 2024, and after that we’ll try to discern which teams might have tougher or easier schedules to open the year (September) or to close the year (weeks 15-17, the playoffs). of fantasy).

Okay, goodbye goes like this:

• Week 5: Lions, Chargers, Eagles, Titans

• Week 6: Bosses, Rams, Dolphins, Vikings

• Week 7: Bears, Cowboys

• Week 9: Steelers, 49ers

• Week 10: Browns, Packers, Raiders, Seahawks

• Week 11: Cardinals, Panthers, Giants, Buccaneers

• Week 12: Falcons, Bills, Bengals, Jaguars, Saints, Jets

• Week 14: Ravens, Broncos, Texans, Colts, Patriots, Commanders

I’ll never quite understand why every NFL bye week isn’t a four-team standard, but you’ll notice (as always) that some of these bye weeks aren’t like the others. Only two teams are on vacation in Weeks 7 and 9, while six teams are on vacation in Weeks 12 and 14.

I’ve been playing fantasy football for a while now (when I started playing, Brett Favre was a new and somewhat unknown player). I’ve heard all kinds of time off strategies. Some managers like to draft in the last few weeks, kick the can down the road, imagine that their roster will change significantly before they have to face a roster deficit (or they might do some roster massages at the end of the year when decisions are made. sockets). a greater understanding of the group of players and the needs of the team). Some managers pile up layoffs, figuring they can miss one week but do well the other weeks. Many coaches draft with little or no consideration for off weeks, and I don’t think that’s unreasonable, in the right league. You know your context better than outsiders.

One thing I’m open to considering – and please understand this is a low-cost tiebreak, nothing more – is trying to get some players into skinny byes; that is, players tied to teams that share a bye with only one other NFL club. The idea is that by drafting these players, you won’t miss them much when they’re off (30 NFL teams play that week) and they’ll provide utility when the heavier byes begin. a league of snow globes and how quickly injuries and chaos take hold. I would never pursue this idea aggressively, it’s just a way to break a tie after several more important factors have produced a stalemate.

The Bears and Cowboys have a bye in Week 7. That doesn’t mean DJ Moore will score 13 touchdowns or Ezekiel Elliott will find the fountain of youth in Dallas. It’s just a little tiebreaker. The Steelers and Niners have a bye in Week 9.

One of my main fantasy goals is to get off to a good start, to get some leverage. I like to play fantasy football with a microscope (focus on what’s in front of me) and not necessarily with a telescope (focus on things far away from me).

Let’s be clear about one thing – right now we’re looking at all of this through a telescope – September is almost four months away. We have no idea which teams will be ravaged by injuries before the first kickoff. But it’s fun to imagine who might come out on top in September, so let’s examine the lineup as such.

I did the math on which teams had the easiest and hardest schedules based on the sum of their Opponent’s projected win totals (the above/below team). This is a simple way to do it and does not incorporate weather, schedule flow, training, home and road dates, the perceived strength of a team’s offense versus defense, etc. their September opponents collectively expected to be, this second?” (Props to Warren Sharpwhich I’m sure created this new concept.)

With that in mind, here are the “easy” September schedules, if you can tell.

• Bengals: Patriots, into Chiefs, Commanders, into Panthers

• Jets: at Niners, at Titans, Patriots, Broncos

• Lions: Rams, Buccaneers, Cardinals, Seahawks

• Niners: Jets, at Vikings, at Rams, Patriots

• Chargers: Raiders, Panthers, Steelers, Chiefs

• Commanders: Buccaneers, Giants, Bengals, Cardinals

• Seahawks: Broncos, at Patriots, Dolphins, at Lions

The Lions have three home games here, which is good. Washington’s start is tempered by three road games. After the Niners, the Jets target three inexperienced quarterbacks.

Using the same methodology, here are the “difficult” times for September

• Chiefs: Ravens, Bengals, Falcons, Chargers

• Ravens: at Chiefs, Raiders, at Cowboys, Bills

• Patriots: on Bengals. Seahawks at Jets at Niners

• Jaguars: Dolphins, Browns, Bills, Texans

• Falcons: Steelers, at Eagles, Chiefs, Saints

• Vikings: at Giants, Niners, Texans, at Packers

• Titans: at Bears, Jets, Packers, at Dolphins

• Rams: at Lions, at Cardinals, Niners, at Bears

The Patriots will likely be major underdogs in their three road games. The Jaguars and Rams also go on the road three times in September. At least the Chiefs can enjoy tying Baltimore and Cincinnati at home.

I’m not someone who puts much stock in “easy” and “hard” fantasy playoff schedules. A lot will change before we get to Week 17. Again, it’s a snow globe league. But if you like getting ahead of the holidays, I have some scheduling rankings for you. This is all written in pencil, players.

“Easy” schedules for week 15-17 (weather is not taken into account)

• Chargers: Buccaneers, Broncos and Patriots

• Colts: on the Broncos, Titans, on the Giants

• Cardinals: Patriots, at Panthers, at Rams

• Falcons: in Raiders, Giants, in Commanders

• Bengals: on Titans, Browns, Broncos

• Packers: Rams, at Dolphins, Lions

• Cowboys: in the Panthers, Buccaneers, in the Eagles

• Santos: Commanders, at Packers, Raiders

• Jaguars: Jets, and Raiders, Titans

The Falcons have the easiest overall schedule according to the math above (see below) and that also comes into play in December. We’re all dying to see what this offense can become now that Arthur Smith is gone and a legitimate quarterback (Kirk Cousins) is taking over.

“Hard” schedules for weeks 15-17 (weather is not taken into account)

• Steelers: Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs

• Texans: Dolphins, at Chiefs, Ravens

• Browns: Chiefs, Bengals, Dolphins

• Lions: Bills, at Bears, at Niners

• Dolphins: at Texans, Niners, at Browns

• Giants: Ravens, Falcons, Colts

• Niners: Rams, at Dolphins, Lions

Barring a few upsets, the Steelers will be underdogs in all of these games. Maybe a busy atmosphere can balance things out a little.

Maybe you want the whole enchilada, how about that? The team’s schedule ranks cumulatively from Weeks 1 to 17, based on team over-unders. There’s a lot of noise involved in this, but I’ll give you the data if you want (a low total is a weak schedule; a high total equals a tougher schedule). For logical fantasy purposes, this stops Week 18. And this list will look comically skewed when the season begins; that’s how the NFL is. Once again a nod to Warren Sharpwho first introduced this keen concept to the public.

• Falcons 122

• Chargers 126

• Bears 127

• Jets 128

• Saints 128

• Canes 130

• Colts 130

• Panthers 131

• Commanders 133

• Dolphins 133

• Cardinals 133

• Giants 134

• Broncos 134

• Eagles 134

• Bosses 134

• Buccaneers 135

• Seahawks 136

• Invaders 136

• Jaguars 136

• Packers 137

• Lions 138

• Nine 138

• Rams 138

• Crows 138

• Browns 139

• Cowboys 139

• Titans 139

• Vikings 139

• Patriots 143

• Azores 144

• Texas 144

• Accounts 144

Whatever that means. The future remains unwritten. Draft like a champion today.