🎁 NFL Schedule Surprises

Can the Chargers social media team call the plays??

In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter presented by Masterworks:

It never ceases to amaze me that the NFL can turn an announcement of some dates on the calendar into a marquee event and yet here I am lapping up every morsel of it.

Last night’s reveal brought us a sled-full of presents to unpack, including the games to circle, the easiest and toughest schedules, fantasy implications, and a game of cinematic one-upmanship from the social media teams across the league.

Let’s dig in…

🔦 The Primetime Games

📆 Here is the full set of schedules for SNF, MNF, and TNF for the 2024 NFL season. Spend time with your family now, fall is coming.

📺️ The Jets are the first team in NFL history to receive six primetime games in the first 11 weeks of the season. Not sure how Aaron Rodgers is going to squeeze in any VP debates with this busy schedule.

🎄 Netflix will be hosting two games on Christmas Day: Chiefs vs. Steelers and Ravens vs. Texans. Cons: another service to pay for to watch NFL! Pros: can catch up on Love Is Blind at halftime with the fam.

🏆️ The Fantasy Implications

Us fantasy sickos are already decoding what strategic shifts we should be considering for our drafts. Here are some nuggets to consider:

• The easiest and toughest schedules. Easiest: (Falcons, Chargers, Bears). Toughest: (Steelers, Patriots, and Browns) (h/t Sharp Football). More on those from Sam below.

• QB bye weeks and TE bye weeks for best ball purposes (h/t John Daigle). Week 14 looking dicey.

• The regular season king? Jared Goff doesn’t play an outdoor game until Week 9.

• Playoff heroes? The Raiders play three straight dome games in Weeks 15, 16, and 17. The Week 17 (fantasy championship) dome games: Ravens/Texans, Packers/Vikings, Raiders/Saints, Cardinals/Rams.

• Playoff zeroes? Tua out in the cold?? Oh no.

• Also, we get this Week 17 matchup for the second year in a row.

🛫 The Frequent Flyers Club

⚡️ The Chargers will travel more miles than any NFL team (26,803). Good thing Jim Harbaugh likes to seize to-day, because the jet lag to-morrow is going to be rough.

📦️ The Commanders will travel the fewest miles (10,550), which is good because Jayden Daniels will need to get it done on the ground this year.

🌏️ Two teams will travel to Brazil, two to Germany, and six to London. Full international schedule. Apologies to the Germans, but we can’t send you Chiefs/Dolphins every year.

📹️ Which team had the best release video?

🏅 Honorable mentions: The Seahawks got Chris Pratt for their scheduleverse. The Dolphins went for the fastest schedule release. The Titans played the hits with an encore from last year.

🥉 Bronze: The Lions went full Detroiters with Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson.

🥈 Silver: The Patriots gave Good Will Hunting a sendup with many familiar faces and the most cinematic release of the bunch.

🥇 Gold: But the Chargers are still the king of the format. Not only did they do their entire video in the world of The Sims, but they absolutely roasted Harrison Butker in the process.

Read on for more schedule winners and losers below…

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📈 Two veterans going overlooked in best ball drafts? The biggest values and more.

👀 Weather impacts, QB streamers, DST sleepers and more. Biggest takeaways from the schedule release.

📆 What NFL players care about with the schedule. Makes sense.

🤔 The early window/late window split for RedZone. What’s up with Week 2??

😆 How long will Jason Kelce last at ESPN? At least one week!

🍭 Keon Coleman’s Top 3 snacks. It had to be asked.

🐬 A kid cooks Tyreek Hill in a drill. Patriots should call him up.

📝 Don’t write off Year 3 WRs. It can happen.

🪟 Free Sean McVay. Get this man a window.

The full NFL schedule is finally here! Let's dive into some of the biggest winners and losers for fantasy football and see if we can give you the edge you need to dominate your league this season. Oh, and don't forget about bye weeks! It can't hurt to start preparing yourself to trot out some truly brutal lineups in Weeks 12 & 14. Take it away Sam Wallace…

📈 2024 NFL Schedule Release Winners

🏆️ New York Jets

Still think the NFL doesn't want to give Aaron Rodgers the best possible environment to succeed after his 2023 season was cut short?

The Jets have the fourth-easiest schedule over the entire season and the easiest schedule over the first five weeks.

After a date with the 49ers to kick things off, the Jets face the following QBs over the next four weeks:

• Week 2 - Will Levis

• Week 3 - Drake Maye

• Week 4 - Bo Nix

• Week 5 - Sam Darnold / J.J. McCarthy

You've got to be kidding me.

Is Rodgers suddenly a value? He's certainly someone I wouldn't mind targeting as an early-season streaming option if I don't snag a more elite QB in my draft. The same can be said of the Jets' skill position players. Potential Week 1 duds could crack open some windows of opportunity for managers taking advantage of overreactions.

In all, the Jets only play three games against teams with projected win totals over 10. Two are against the Bills, and the other is Week 1 against San Francisco.

📉 2024 NFL Schedule Release Losers

🐦‍⬛ Baltimore Ravens

The NFL might just hate the Ravens as much as it loves the Jets this season.

Remember just how cushy Weeks 1-5 were for the Jets? Talk about a polar opposite for Baltimore. They have the worst opening five weeks of any team and the No. 28 schedule overall.

Check out these first five matchups for Lamar Jackson & Co.

• Week 1 - @ Chiefs

• Week 2 - vs Raiders

• Week 3 - @ Cowboys

• Week 4 - vs Bills

• Week 5 - @ Bengals

Four games against teams with projected win totals in the double-digits. Simply brutal.

It doesn't get any easier over the back half of the season as more AFC North matchups await, along with a trip to Philly and a home game vs C.J. Stroud and the Texans on Christmas Day.

The Ravens do have ample offensive firepower in Jackson, Derrick Henry, Zay Flowers and Mark Andrews, but their schedule does them no favors. A glass half-full viewpoint would say they'll be battle-tested come December, which I guess is true.

Fret not, just think of this when you run out of FAAB 🫶

— The Fantasy Ladder🪜(Steve) (@FantasyLadder)
May 15, 2024