NFL Schedule Release: The Worst Bye Weeks of 2023

There’s an argument to be made that the NFL schedule release day is the most overhyped day of the football calendar, because we know from the minute the previous season ends who everyone will be playing the next season. The schedule is just the order, and while that matters for fantasy football, it’s not that big a deal.

The biggest piece of information we get on schedule release day for our fantasy football purposes, though, is the bye weeks. Whether Patrick Mahomes is facing the Raiders or the Broncos in a given week is important, but whether he is playing at all matters way more.

So with the schedule well and truly in place and the bye weeks all sorted, today we’re looking ahead at the bye weeks for 2023. Should this change your draft strategy? Probably not, and if it does only barely. But it is worth being aware of the weeks when you’re going to have to plan ahead and/or scramble to fill a lineup because all your good players are spending a few days in Cancun.

2023 NFL Schedule Release: The Bye Weeks

Here are the byes for the 2023 season:

Even with 18 weeks of football, there are only eight weeks of byes in 2023 — Weeks 5-7, Weeks 9-11 and Weeks 13-14. There are no byes in Week 12 because of Thanksgiving, and there are none in Week 8 because … I don’t know, friendship or something.

Week 5 (Chargers, Seahawks, Browns, Buccaneers)

Key names on a bye (in order of their place in the FTN Fantasy rankings):

• Quarterback: Justin Herbert, Deshaun Watson, Geno Smith
• Running Back: Austin Ekeler, Nick Chubb, Kenneth Walker, Rachaad White, Zach Charbonnet
• Wide Receiver: DK Metcalf, Amari Cooper, Keenan Allen, Chris Godwin, Mike Williams, Mike Evans, Tyler Lockett, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Quentin Johnston
• Tight End: David Njoku

Early byes are on the helpful side, because generally speaking, managers haven’t had to go dumpster diving to fill in for their own byes or as many injuries. In other words, replacing guys like Austin Ekeler and DK Metcalf is always going to be hard, but in Week 5 it’s easier than it could be later in the year.

Tight end is, uh, not going to present many bye-related problems in Week 5.

Week 6 (Packers, Steelers)

Key names on a bye:

• Quarterback: None
• Running Back: Najee Harris, Aaron Jones, AJ Dillon
• Wide Receiver: Christian Watson, Diontae Johnson, George Pickens
• Tight End: Pat Freiermuth

Five years ago, the Packers and Steelers being on a bye, even as the only teams doing so, would have made fantasy headlines. Aaron Rodgers and Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown and Davante Adams and oh my. These days? The absences aren’t nothing, but they are not exactly going to make or break someone’s fantasy season.

Week 7 (Bengals, Cowboys, Jets, Panthers, Texans, Titans)

Key names on a bye:

• Quarterback: Joe Burrow, Dak Prescott, Aaron Rodgers 
• Running Back: Derrick Henry, Tony Pollard, Breece Hall, Joe Mixon, Miles Sanders, Dameon Pierce, Devin Singletary, Michael Carter
• Wide Receiver: Ja’Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb, Garrett Wilson, Tee Higgins, Treylon Burks, Brandin Cooks, Adam Thielen, Tyler Boyd, Nico Collins
• Tight End: Dalton Schultz

The Bengals, Cowboys and Jets make this bye look pretty scary, but the back half of Panthers, Texans and Titans really mute the effect. Still, losing all the Bengals and Cowboys receivers is enough to make this bye pretty rough, even if the tight end absences aren’t that big a deal and the quarterbacks missing are more of the second tier than the first.

Week 9 (Jaguars, Lions, Broncos, 49ers)

Key names on a bye:

• Quarterback: Trevor Lawrence, Jared Goff, Russell Wilson
• Running Back: Christian McCaffrey, Travis Etienne, Jahmyr Gibbs, David Montgomery, Javonte Williams, Samaje Perine, Elijah Mitchell
• Wide Receiver: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Deebo Samuel, Calvin Ridley, Christian Kirk, Jerry Jeudy, Brandon Aiyuk, Courtland Sutton
• Tight End: George Kittle, Evan Engram, Greg Dulcich, Sam LaPorta

The mere presence of the 49ers on the Week 9 list of byes is enough to make this week matter overall. Christian McCaffrey can put up 35 points in any given week, Deebo Samuel can as well, George Kittle can as well. 

After the 49ers, this bye week is high on quantity. The Broncos and Jaguars might not necessarily have anyone guaranteed to be in the top 10 at their position, but they could have something along the lines of 10 players in the respective top-20s. And then there are the Lions, who only have Amon-Ra St. Brown as a maybe-elite option but could have several names who will be on rosters in many leagues.

Week 10 (Eagles, Chiefs, Dolphins, Rams)

Key names on a bye:

• Quarterback: Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, Tua Tagovailoa, Matthew Stafford
• Running Back: Cam Akers, D’Andre Swift, Isiah Pacheco, Rashaad Penny, Jerick McKinnon, Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson, Devon Achane
• Wide Receiver: Tyreek Hill, Cooper Kupp, A.J. Brown, Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith, Kadarius Toney
• Tight End: Travis Kelce, Dallas Goedert, Tyler Higbee

Let’s see… we’ll be missing both of last year’s Super Bowl teams, two of the top three quarterbacks, the clear top tight end and another top-five (ish) option, four of last year’s top 10 receivers and Cooper Kupp, a bunch of upside running backs … and Kadarius Toney, who for the hundredth time in his two-plus-year career might now be relevant. I hope your teams get off to a good start, because Week 10 is going to be a loss for a lot of good rosters in 2023.

Week 11 (Colts, Saints, Patriots, Falcons)

Key names on a bye:

• Quarterback: Anthony Richardson, Derek Carr
• Running Back: Jonathan Taylor, Bijan Robinson, Rhamondre Stevenson, Alvin Kamara
• Wide Receiver: Chris Olave, Drake London, Michael Pittman, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Michael Thomas
• Tight End: Kyle Pitts, Juwan Johnson, Hunter Henry 

Fine-dining restaurants will often serve a palate cleanser between courses, a neutral flavor meant to serve as a break from the complex flavors and prepare you for the next food to come. It’s bland, not very meaningful, far less important from the heavy courses surrounding it.

Anyway, here’s the Week 11 bye list.

Week 13 (Bills, Bears, Ravens, Giants, Vikings, Raiders)

Key names on a bye:

• Quarterback: Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Justin Fields, Daniel Jones, Kirk Cousins
• Running Back: Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Dalvin Cook, J.K. Dobbins, James Cook, Khalil Herbert, Damien Harris, Alexander Mattison
• Wide Receiver: Justin Jefferson, Stefon Diggs, Davante Adams, DJ Moore, Gabe Davis, Rashod Bateman, Jordan Addison, Jakobi Meyers, Wan’Dale Robinson, Zay Flowers, Odell Beckham, Isaiah Hodgins, Darnell Mooney
• Tight End: Mark Andrews, T.J. Hockenson, Darren Waller, Cole Kmet, Dawson Knox, Dalton Kincaid, Michael Mayer 

Traditionally, one of the benefits of heavy bye weeks in the middle of the season is that, when one bye week hits you particularly hard, a different one generally hits a different roster the week before, and that means a planning-ahead fantasy manager can pick over the players other managers were forced to drop to take care of their own issues. It’s hollow comfort, but it’s something.

So of course, the league did us the favor here of having this rough bye week (maybe five starting quarterbacks? Far too many starting tight ends?) come right after a Week 12 where there are no byes at all. You did us dirty, NFL.

Week 14 (Cardinals, Commanders)

Key names on a bye:

• Quarterback: Kyler Murray (if he’s back)
• Running Back: James Conner, Brian Robinson, Antonio Gibson
• Wide Receiver: DeAndre Hopkins, Terry McLaurin, Marquise Brown, Jahan Dotson
• Tight End: Trey McBride

I am not a schedule maker. ESPN’s Mike Clay once tweeted that he liked to try to sketch out the schedule every offseason in advance of the NFL’s release, if for no other reason than to remind himself how hard it is, and I cringed at the mere idea. I’m sure it’s hard. But I still don’t understand how the league can land on a schedule where the hellish byes of Weeks 10 and 13 are followed by the relative nothings of Weeks 11 and 14.

On the other hand, the fantasy playoffs start in Week 15. Obviously, every regular-season matchup counts the same, but we’d be kidding ourselves if we pretended we didn’t apply artificial extra weight to that last week before the playoffs, and so it was nice of the league to make this particular “last week of the regular season” a relatively relaxed one from a bye perspective.

Which Week Is the 2023 Byemageddon?

Every season, there is a week or two that just ravages fantasy rosters, leaving some teams scrambling for bottom-of-the-barrel options and/or dropping key players just to fill out a roster. This year, there are eight different weeks of byes.

Let’s start with the obvious no’s:

• Week 6 (Packers, Steelers)
• Week 11 (Colts, Saints, Patriots, Falcons)
• Week 14 (Cardinals, Commanders)

Yes, individual managers will miss guys like Terry McLaurin, Jonathan Taylor, Pat Freiermuth in these weeks. But nobody will really call these weeks crushers.

Now on to weeks that will be painful, but not that painful:

• Week 5 (Chargers, Seahawks, Browns, Buccaneers)
• Week 7 (Bengals, Cowboys, Jets, Panthers, Texans, Titans)
• Week 9 (Jaguars, Lions, Broncos, 49ers)

These weeks will be rough for teams missing their players. That will be unavoidable. But between there being only four teams in two of the weeks and there being three relatively light rosters among the six byes in the third, these weeks aren’t the total dealbreakers.

That leaves us with two candidates for the 2023 Byemageddon:

• Week 10 (Eagles, Chiefs, Dolphins, Rams)
• Week 13 (Bills, Bears, Ravens, Giants, Vikings, Raiders)

The moribund Rams being part of a four-bye week that is nonetheless a candidate here only speaks to the pain inflicted by the other three teams’ absences. Being down all of the Chiefs, Eagles and Dolphins in the same week is pretty disastrous, and adding Cooper Kupp to that only hurds more.

But even with that, I think it’s pretty clear that Week 13 is worse. Week 10 arguably loses more on the ceiling side, but the sheer quantity of the absences in Week 13 (all the Bills! Justin Fields’ and Lamar Jackson’s legs! Justin Jefferson and Davante Adams!) will create some serious fantasy quandaries, and it’s only made worse that it’s the penultimate week of the regular season and we’ll be playing for our fantasy lives with a handful of players tied behind our backs.

Week 13 is the 2023 Fantasy Byemageddon.