Be Ready For BYEpocalypse in 2024
Bye weeks are nothing new in fantasy football. Every year, when managers approach their drafts and make their selections, they have to keep in mind when players won’t be available. Usually, each NFL bye week only impacts a few teams (2-4 at most.) This season, however, there’s not one but two weeks that will see SIX teams (YES, SIX) sitting it out. This would be fine (kind of) if it were early in the season when there’s still time to make up for a bad week here and there but that’s not the case. It’s weeks 12 and 14. That’s right. Two of the final three weeks of the fantasy regular season will force managers to navigate matchups without some key players. I know that when making the NFL Schedule, the NFL doesn’t consider those of us who play fantasy football, but after seeing the upcoming slate, I think they should.
- Week 5 – Tennessee, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit
- Week 6 -Miami, Kansas City, Minnesota, Los Angeles
- Week 7 -Dallas, Chicago
- Week 9 -Pittsburgh, San Francisco
- Week 10 -Cleveland, Las Vegas, Seattle, Green Bay
- Week 11 -NY Giants, Arizona, Tampa Bay, Carolina
- Week 12 – Buffalo, NY Jets, Cincinnati, Atlanta, New Orleans, Jacksonville
- Week 14 – Indianapolis, New England, Denver, Washington, Baltimore, Houston
Typically, when approaching any fantasy football draft, the consensus strategy has been to be aware of bye weeks but not allow them to change how we draft. But every so often, a season comes along with a bye week so impactful that you must give it more attention and consideration than you may have in previous seasons. 2024 is one such season. Last year only two teams were on bye during week 14. Even though the teams weren’t fantasy powerhouses (Arizona and Washington) losing players when it matters most can still be tough. Ideally, you would have all your players available in week 14 since it is typically the last week before the fantasy playoffs. But this season that won’t be the case.
To make matters worse, it will come just two weeks after another massive bye week. The one saving grace is that every manager will be impacted with 12 teams on bye in these two weeks. Still, depending on the specific players sitting out, some managers could take a bigger hit than others. Let’s take a look at the teams and, more importantly, the players who will be impacted by the Byenado or Byepocalypse, or whatever you wish to call it, and how we might be able to weather the storm.
>> Check 2024 NFL Strength of Schedule
Who Will Be Impacted?
In Week 12, managers will see the Falcons, Bills, Bengals, Jaguars, Jets, and Saints have a week off, and then two weeks later, it will be the Ravens, Texans, Colts, Patriots, Broncos, and Commanders. While there isn’t a ton of fantasy value in all those teams, there are key pieces on nearly all of them, and some of them are loaded with fantasy assets. To be without players like Bijan Robinson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Breece Hall late in the season and then have to navigate your final matchup of the regular season without the likes of Lamar Jackson, C.J. Stroud, Nico Collins, Jonathan Taylor, and Mark Andrews could be devastating.
Even players like Jayden Daniels and Rhamondre Stevenson, who are question marks going into the season, could be major contributors by week 14. The one component of fantasy football that is nearly impossible to account for is luck, whether good or bad. These bye weeks fall into that category. They are out of your control and not the result of poor drafting or poor management throughout the season. But these weeks are still a reality and have to be managed to the best of your capability. That may be easier said than done, but there are a couple of approaches you could take to help get you through.
Try To Avoid The Bye Weeks As Much As Possible
With so many elite players involved, it’s will be nearly impossible to avoid the late-season bye weeks altogether. Plus, doing so would mean you would have to pass up some true difference-makers in favor of lesser players just so that you don’t have to deal with losing them when the games matter the most. What would be possible is trying to minimize the damage by targeting a couple of players with a week 12 bye and a couple more with a week 14 bye. That way you won’t be without half of your starting lineup in either week and, if you’ve drafted well, you should have the depth to cover losing a couple of key players. With their current ADPs, a lineup that includes Chase, Collins, Andrews, and Burrow is feasible and would put you in a position where you only lose a couple of elite players each week. Late in the season we usually know who the strong, contending teams are and who the weaker teams are, and if you’re in the top half of your league, you don’t want one or two weeks to derail you by no fault of your own. Fantasy Football is already hard enough to figure out with injuries, and underperforming and out-of-nowhere breakout players. Why make it more so by being unable to manage your way through a couple of tough bye weeks?
Go All-In
As I already mentioned, the other option, and one that has been utilized to varying degrees of effectiveness throughout the years, is going all-in on the heavy bye week. With two brutal weeks this season I’m not suggesting going all-in on both. You would want to pick one or the other, but some managers swear by this method. The logic is somewhat sound. Focusing on players in a given bye week allows you to have your primary roster through most of the season while most likely sacrificing just one week in the process. The issue this season is that one of the heaviest bye weeks is arguably the most important and is typically the one week in which you do not want to take a loss. You could focus on stacking byes in Week 12, but even that is pretty late in the season to deploy this method. Also, as I said earlier, you would have to pass on too many elite players to make this method a good strategy this season. So while this may have been a reasonable tactic to take in previous seasons, it could have major implications in 2024, and is not a road I would advise going down.
Conclusion
Of course, there is a third approach you could take and try to avoid the bye weeks altogether, but there are too many elite players affected to consider putting them on a Do Not Draft List. The truth is the 2024 schedule has dealt fantasy managers a curveball, and the late-season byes will almost certainly push a fantasy manager (or two) out of the playoffs who was looking pretty good for the postseason going into that final stretch. While week 14 is getting most of the attention, and rightfully so, with it being such an important week, don’t forget about week 12. Hopefully, your team will be doing so well leading up to the final few weeks that they won’t matter as much, but if you’re like most of us, that won’t be the case. The best thing you can do is go into your draft prepared with a plan, and with a bit of knowledge, skill, and a little luck thrown in, hopefully it will all work out.
