Bye Week Solution??

[Sinatra's Liver]

This may not be the correct forum for this subject, but since this category has a lot of traffic, I thought this was a good place to start. I’d like to propose a change to the way the NFL schedule works and see if I can get the DFL community behind it and perhaps make it stick.

Bye weeks suck for fantasy football. Yeah, I said it. It’s always a challenge to work around the bye weeks. And that suckiness is just compounded when you find out (during the off season) that both of your stud QBs have the same bye week for the upcoming season. Crap!! If there was only a way that the NFL mandated bye week did not cause problems for the millions of people (and frankly, MILLIONS of dollars) that play fantasy football.

The NFL starts bye weeks on Week 4 and doesn’t stop until Week 12. My guess is that most players hate having an early or a late bye, but would rather have it somewhere about halfway through the season. I’ve thought about this and believe I have a two-part solution.

I propose that the NFL only have bye weeks on Week 8 and 9. All NFC teams rest on Week 8 and all AFC on Week 9. That way, all fantasy football games for Week 8 and 9 are combined into one week in our fantasy schedules. There would be no reason to have a “bye week fill-in”. All your AFC players’ stats from Week 8 combined with your NFC players’ stats from Week 9. The bye week problem has been solved!!

I understand the NFL needs enough games on TV to fill up the time slots on Thursday night, Monday night and the three (early, mid and late) on Sundays. I further propose that all NFC and AFC games during Weeks 8 and 9 should be games between each team’s most hated rivals. Imagine two full weeks of 16 interdivision rivalries!! Patriots/Jets, Bears/Packers, 49ers/Rams, Giants/Eagles, Ravens/Steelers and on and on and on. Talk about “Must See TV”!! There would be 8 games per week – more than enough to fill the TV time slots.

I have emailed my proposal to the NFL and to a few national sports personalities, but haven’t heard anything back. Either, my idea is crap and cannot work, or it is viable and we just need to find the right person to champion this movement to some influential people. I would hope that the powers-that-be realize that the rise in popularity of the NFL can be directly tied to the rise in fantasy football and that we need a bye week solution!!

Therefore, I’m asking if anyone out there has any sort of connection, to push this idea along. Can we find someone high enough up to at least get this on the table for discussion? Or tell me I’m crazy and let me know why this won’t work.

[bjd5211]

Well start rethinking it all, a 17 game/19 week season with 2 byes is on the horizon.

[FantasyFreak]

Well start rethinking it all, a 17 game/19 week season with 2 byes is on the horizon.

Maybe. Let's hope not.

[rschroeder1]

I will always applaud outside-the-box thinking. So, applause!

While this proposal would not address your problem at all, I think a more realistic set-up would have two bye weeks in an 18 or 19 week NFL season, with the byes purposely structured to ensure that almost every team playing on Thursday night has a bye before their Thursday game. I don't think any team is going to want a Week 1 bye, so this set-up isn't feasible for Week 2 (and maybe not even Week 3 if teams don't want a Week 2 bye so early). But you get my point - for the majority of the season, the schedule can be set up to provide for more recovery time for players, more planning time for the game, etc. And, there's the bonus of the mini bye on the back end.

This seems like a super-obvious thing to do, which means the NFL will assuredly not do it.

[Cult of Dionysus]

It's very good idea for fantasy purposes. But I think not such a great idea for NFL logistics, including Thursday night schedules trips to London and also working around stadium schedules.

[ebsteelers]

how about start in week 4 thru week 11.

4 teams each week, ABC order and it rotates each year... so in year 1 week 4 (Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, Buffalo) then in year 2 those 4 teams go to week 11.

year 1 week 5 (Carolina, Cincinnati, Chicago, Cleveland) in year 2 those teams go to week 4 bye etc..

probably would never happen, but at least it'd be easier for the nfl teams and fantasy owners to track when a team will have a bye week.


another option rotate byes by division.

[Cult of Dionysus]

Again, random bye weeks does a lot for the NFL when it comes to setting schedules for stadiums. Not sure they'll give that up.

My guess is the NFL will ADD a 2nd bye week, not collapse the bye weeks into Weeks 8 and 9.

Again, great idea for fantasy, not so great for NFL purposes (except for players, who I think would benefit from a mid season break).

[honcho55]

I don’t see the bye week as a problem for fantasy that needs an outside fix, I see it as a small facet of this game we play.

I do hate Thursday games though. It’s usually not too good a game, weird things happen, seems like more injuries (don’t have a source for that, could be wrong), it puts teams in weird spots with 4 days rest or 10 days rest. And, of course most importantly, it throws a wrench into fantasy. Ex: could have had a nice 10 points out of a Thursday guy, but you’re stud was playing Monday, but whoops! Stud was a late injury report addition and you’re screwed, and have to eat a zero in a shallow league.

Seems to me like managing through bye weeks in general is more of a skill game still

[slaughterrt]

Bye week strategy is just a part of the game. With all of the talk of “player safety”, they aren’t gonna condense the bye weeks into two weeks. And while yes, the nfl cares about the money they get from fantasy football, they aren’t gonna modify the actual nfl schedule to accommodate a small issue of us trying to find bye week replacements at QB. Just doesn’t make sense. I would say I have more of an issue with my stud players not playing in the fantasy championship game because their real life team sat their starters because they already secured a playoff spot. Bye weeks you can account for and plan ahead for those weeks. Not having your stud fantasy players for your championship game isn’t really something you can plan for.

All in all, there are parts of the game that you just have to try to work your strategy around. There’s no “fixing” it...just gotta build depth to cover your lineup.

[M-Dub]

I don’t see the bye week as a problem for fantasy that needs an outside fix, I see it as a small facet of this game we play.

I do hate Thursday games though. It’s usually not too good a game, weird things happen, seems like more injuries (don’t have a source for that, could be wrong), it puts teams in weird spots with 4 days rest or 10 days rest. And, of course most importantly, it throws a wrench into fantasy. Ex: could have had a nice 10 points out of a Thursday guy, but you’re stud was playing Monday, but whoops! Stud was a late injury report addition and you’re screwed, and have to eat a zero in a shallow league.

Seems to me like managing through bye weeks in general is more of a skill game still

I totally agree on Thursday games. In addition to all the issues you already outlined, Thursdays were always reserved for college football. I hate the NFL encroaching on CFB. Ideally, I wish they’d get rid of Thursday games (other than the Thanksgiving slate, of course) and have a double-header every Monday night like they do in week 1.