Fantasy football owners have far more strenuous schedules than NFL players. It's not even close when you think about it. They have a bye week; we don't. Even worse, we have to work around their bye weeks, and no matter who’s available, we still have to lace ‘em up and prepare for our matchup. Case closed. That's why we're trying to help overworked fantasy owners prepare for the 2021 NFL season by providing a handy list of every team's bye and breaking down some of the most popular draft strategies for dealing with this inevitable in-season nuisance.
OK, so maybe NFL players work a little harder than we do during the season, but it's still important to plan ahead. There are several ways to approach bye weeks during your drafts, and you at least want to know the potential obstacles you will face.
DOMINATE YOUR DRAFT: Ultimate 2021 Cheat Sheet
If you’re ignoring bye weeks completely, you’re participating in our first strategy. You might also stack players with the same bye week or try to spread your byes out as much as possible. The purpose of this article is to purely discuss bye-week strategy during your drafts. Of course, you’ll have to do some in-season management, but coming up with a specific strategy or highlighting potential players to target before the draft may limit the work.
2021 STANDARD FANTASY RANKINGS:
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker | Top 200
Fantasy Draft Strategy: Bye Weeks
2021 NFL Schedule: Bye Weeks
Week 6: Falcons, Saints, Jets, 49ers
Week 7: Bills, Cowboys, Jaguars, Chargers, Vikings, Steelers
Week 8: Ravens, Raiders
Week 9: Lions, Seahawks, Buccaneers, Washington
Week 10: Bears, Bengals, Texans, Giants
Week 11: Broncos, Rams
Week 12: Cardinals, Chiefs
Week 13: Panthers, Browns, Packers, Titans
Week 14: Colts, Dolphins, Patriots, Eagles
2021 PPR FANTASY RANKINGS:
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker | Top 200
Notable Overlapping Bye Weeks by Position
Quarterback: Week 7 (Dak Prescott, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert) | Week 9 (Russell Wilson, Tom Brady) | Week 12 (Patrick Mahomes, Kyler Murray) | Week 13 (Aaron Rodgers, Ryan Tannehill)
Running Back: Week 7 (Ezekiel Elliot, Dalvin Cook, Austin Ekeler) | Week 9 (D'Andre Swift, Chris Carson, Antonio Gibson) | Week 10 (David Montgomery, Joe Mixon, Saquon Barklely) | Week 13 (Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt, Christian McCaffrey, Derrick Henry)
Wide Reciever: Week 6: (Calvin Ridley, Michael Thomas, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk) | Week 7 (Stefon Diggs, CeeDee Lamb, Amari Cooper, Keenan Allen, Justin Jefferson, Adam Theilen, Steelers Trio) | Week 9 (Terry McLaurin, DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Bucs Trio) | Week 12 (Tyreek Hill, DeAndre Hopkins) | Week 13 (Julio Jones, A.J. Brown, Davante Adams, Odell Beckham Jr., Robby Anderson, D.J. Moore)
Tight End: Week 6 (Kyle Pitts, George Kittle) | Week 8 (Darren Waller, Mark Andrews) | Week 9 (T.J. Hockenson, Logan Thomas)
2021 FANTASY SLEEPERS:
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Each team
Bye Week Fantasy Strategy No. 1: Ignore
This strategy is pretty simple. You ignore bye weeks and take the best available players at each spot. After all, isn’t that what a fantasy draft is all about?
The advantage of the strategy is gaining the most possible value and/or upside for your team. Do you really want Matt Ryan’s Week 6 bye to stop you from taking a flier on Trey Lance late? If you like Lance, you shouldn't. You can figure out Week 6 when you get there.
The obvious downside of the strategy is potentially setting yourself up to have several down weeks as a result of byes or missing a key player consistently each week. If you’re completely ignoring the byes, you won’t really be prepared for this until after the draft -- or perhaps not even until the spooky weeks come. Of course, you also might not deal with any of these issues. After all, since you ignored the byes to begin with, it’s all a coin flip in how it will inevitably turn out.
2021 FANTASY AUCTION VALUES (Standard & PPR):Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker | Overall
Bye Week Fantasy Strategy No. 2: Stack
This involves selecting a bunch of players with the same bye weeks. This isn’t to say you’re selecting players from the same team. As an example, say you select Dalvin Cook, Josh Allen, CeeDee Lamb, Adam Thielen, Laviska Shanult, and Jared Cook. They all have byes in Week 7.
This strategy is done with the assumption that you’re OK with losing in Week 7 and that you’d rather have one disastrous week rather than spread the inefficiencies caused by bye weeks across multiple matchups. This sounds like a decent idea in theory, but it's tough to really put into practice.
The issue is when you get cold feet in the middle of the draft or just can't make it happen without reaching too much for a few starters. Taking lower-tier player to accomplish an ultra bye-week juggernaut might leave you in bad shape in other weeks, too. Plus, thanks to injuries, breakouts, and waiver pickups, you don't know what your starting lineup is going to look like in Week 4, never mind Week 9 or 10, so you still might have roughly the same number of bye-week headaches during the season anyway. This limits the value and upside potential of your roster.
2021 FANTASY TIERS & DRAFT STRATEGY:
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST
Bye Week Fantasy Strategy No. 3: Spread 'em around
This is probably the most popular strategy across the fantasy community and one you will fall into naturally. Again, it’s pretty self-explanatory, but we’ll break it down anyway.
This strategy involves avoiding players with similar bye weeks as much as possible, especially at the same position. This limits the number of holes in your lineup in any given week. Of course, it also has its problems.
It’s the opposite of strategy No. 1 in the sense that it doesn’t allow you to take the best possible player with the highest value at every point in the draft. In Week 13, the Panthers, Packers, Browns, and Titans have byes. If you scored Derrick Henry or Christian McCaffrey with your first-round pick, would you really pass up on Nick Chubb or Aaron Jones if they somehow fell to you in the second round? That doesn't seem like a smart move. Again, worry about Week 13 when it comes around, and enjoy the other 16 weeks of having the best 1-2 punch at RB in your entire league.
2021 FANTASY CONSISTENCY RATINGS:
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end
Which is the best bye-week strategy to implement?
There are a variety of different opinions on this issue, and the strategies work differently year to year, depending on which players/teams share a bye week. as stated earlier, no strategy is perfect -- each has its pros and cons. Just make sure you're aware of a player's byes so nothing comes as a surprise once the season starts.
FANTASY DRAFT STRATEGY:
Snake Draft | Auction | Best Ball | Dynasty/Keeper | IDP
For our money, ignoring bye weeks feels like the right move in most leagues, especially if you trust yourself to be active on the waiver and/or make some well-timed trades. Having the most possible value and upside on your team is worth possibly having a few down weeks. Talent, season-long value, and upside trump bye weeks, both in season and during the draft.