NFL Schedule 2024 Release & Bye Weeks + Fantasy Football Best Ball News
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There are still over three months with no real NFL football games. That’s a cruel summer, as Travis Kelce’s girlfriend might say. But along the way, there are small cases of NFL news and rumors to help us get through.
We laid out our detailed 2024 NFL Offseason Schedule to help you plan ahead. But we got a big offseason present yesterday for both NFL fans and fantasy football gamers alike to debate over: the NFL schedule release!
Here is the full 2024 NFL schedule grid, courtesy of NFL Research.
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What a miraculous time? It used to be that we just had your typical season and a couple fun games on Thanksgiving. Nowadays, there are games in Brazil, Germany and the UK! There are games on Black Friday and Christmas, and even Saturday games!
There’s a wealth of twists and turns to digest so let’s take a quick look then make a couple observations for fantasy football purposes – especially for those best ball leagues where there’s no waiver wire and you need to be very careful of bye weeks!
2024 NFL International Games
- Week 1 - Green Bay Packers vs. Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Week 5 - New York Jets vs. Minnesota Vikings in London, U.K.
- Week 6 - Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Chicago Bears in London, U.K.
- Week 7 - New England Patriots vs. Jacksonville Jaguars in London, U.K.
- Week 10 - New York Giants vs. Carolina Panthers in Munich, Germany
2024 NFL Holiday Games
- Thanksgiving - Chicago Bears vs. Detroit Lions
- Thanksgiving - New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys
- Thanksgiving - Miami Dolphins vs. Green Bay Packers
- Black Friday - Las Vegas Raiders vs. Kansas City Chiefs
- Christmas - Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
- Christmas - Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans
2024 NFL Bye Weeks
- Week 5 - Lions, Chargers, Eagles, Titans
- Week 6 - Chiefs, Rams, Dolphins, Vikings
- Week 7 - Bears, Cowboys
- Week 8 - None
- 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 13 - None
- Week 14 - Ravens, Broncos, Texans, Colts, Patriots, Commanders
2024 Fantasy Football Best Ball Notes & Pairings to Avoid
All offseason we’ve been looking at different position groups to get an idea of what teams could be tough matchups for certain players or not. And, luckily for us, folks like Sharp Football are already on top of some strength of schedule numbers, even with the schedule just coming out last night.
That allows us to get an advantage as soon as possible. And there are a few items that jump out at us based on the surface-level info.
Bye Week 12
There are two “hot spots” this year with six bye weeks – Weeks 12 and 14. Pairing teams with Bye Week 12 is especially punishing for running backs. You have Bijan Robinson, Breece Hall, Travis Etienne, James Cook, Alvin Kamara and Zack Moss all on bye.
On top of that, the early running back strength of schedule info over on FantasyPros suggests that the Jaguars, Bills and Jets are all in the top five most difficult schedules for running backs. So, you’ll need to load up if you are pairing these guys.
Bye Week 14
If your plan was to take one of Lamar Jackson, C.J. Stroud or Anthony Richardson, then circle back to pair them with a rookie QB other than Caleb Williams or J.J. McCarthy, think again.
Not only do those three share a bye week with Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye and Bo Nix, but the Ravens, Texans, Patriots, Commanders and Broncos are all in the bottom eight teams for strength of schedule, per Sharp Football. If you go that route, you are committing to a three-QB build in best ball.
Chiefs, Dolphins, Eagles, Lions & Rams
This group of players has a uniquely difficult combination. First off, all five players have AT LEAST two difficult matchups during fantasy football playoffs (the Chiefs and Dolphins are pretty tough for all three). And not only do a lot of these guys have overlapping bye weeks, but you really don’t get any break Week 6 with the Eagles and Lions playing Dallas and Detroit.
It’s not the end of the world, but if you end up drafting two of these players, you’ll probably want to consider a late, third quarterback. And these guys aren’t particularly cheap to draft, so it ends up being a fairly expensive build.
TEAM | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 15 | Week 16 | Week 17 |
Chiefs | NO | BYE | @CLE | HOU | @PIT |
Dolphins | @NE | BYE | @HOU | SF | @CLE |
Eagles | BYE | CLE | PIT | @WAS | DAL |
Lions | BYE | @DAL | BUF | @CHI | @SF |
Rams | GB | BYE | @SF | @NYJ | ARI |