While an 18-game NFL season might seem exciting, there are potential downsides for fantasy football players. This article explores the concerns surrounding the impact of two preseason games and an elongated regular season on player performance, bye weeks, and the frequency of injuries.
The non-stop trash talk, the weekly challenges of making add/drops and setting a lineup, the excitement of making a blockbuster trade, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Well, it appears that we’re going to get more of these “feels” in the very near future. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that moving to a schedule with two preseason games and 18 regular-season games “is a logical step.
” I’m not sure when it will happen, but I can promise you as someone who has been in this industry for well over two decades… this “logical step” is absolutely going to be a reality.football! While that’s true, more football could also mean more headaches and more reasons for some casual fantasy players to decide that fantasy football isn’t as much fun anymore.both for the NFL and more importantly for our purposes, fantasy football. Here are some of those reasons. We all hate the NFL preseason. Trust me, I get it. It’s somewhat boring. But shrinking it to just two games could have a negative effect on the quality of play in the first month of the season … especially among teams with new coaches, coordinators and personnel. In 2024, when each team played three preseason games, the first four weeks of the regular season weren’t always great. Teams combined to average 21.6 points and 322.7 offensive yards per game. Teams allowed, on average, 10.3 sacks of their quarterbacks and offenses were penalized an average of 55.3 yards. In the next four weeks, however, teams combined to average nearly 24 points and 350 yards of offense per game. Teams allowed, on average, 8.4 sacks of their quarterbacks and offenses were penalized an average of 48.9 times. In terms of fantasy points, quarterbacks averaged 15.2 points in the first four weeks. That total increased to 17.1 points in the next four weeks. Running backs and wide receivers saw smaller increases, but increases nonetheless. Tight ends went from 9.5 fantasy points scored per game in the first four weeks to nearly 14 points per game in Weeks 5-8. The potential for players to have slow statistical starts would be bad for the NFL in terms of the product that’s put on the field, but also for our fantasy football players and teams. The NFL wants to limit player health concerns (although adding another game seems to be the opposite of that), so would it decide to add another bye week? If the league schedule opened Labor Day weekend, it could add a second bye week or a “Pro Bowl” break. 'I think it would be cool to have the normal bye week schedule that it is now, have it spread out, but then, like Week 13, do like the Pro Bowl break where you’re doing the 7-on-7 and all the skills challenges like the NBA does,' Bengals QB Joe Burrow said last year when asked about an 18-game slate. 'I think that would get more ratings for the Pro Bowl, and then it would also give everybody that bye week going into the last six games of the year.' Starting the NFL season on Labor Day Weekend and adding that extra bye would push the Super Bowl to President’s Day Weekend, which seems to be Goodell’s ultimate desire. However, this sort of scenario would mean there would be no fantasy football for one week of the regular season. Honestly, that would suck. This would also create a scenario where bye weeks would be deeper into the season. We saw that this past year when six teams had a bye a week before the start of the fantasy playoffs. That was not ideal for those teams looking to earn a berth if some of their superstars weren’t even available. This would cause an uproar among affected fantasy managers, who might think it’s unfair to lose players not due to injury but due to scheduling. And, they wouldn’t be wrong. Christian McCaffrey missed all but four games this season due to injuries. / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images Pro football is a dangerous game. One of my former player friends likened it to getting into a car accident on every play. As a result, injuries are going to happen. But when we add that 18th regular-season game, it opens up more opportunities for injuries to occur. I don’t know about you, but we saw enough injuries this past season to make fantasy fans weep. The list of fantasy superstars who went down was a lengthy one, and it starts with the top overall pick in 2024 drafts, Christian McCaffrey. He barely played, and when he did get on the field, his numbers weren’t great. Managers also lost Breece Hall, Alvin Kamara, Isiah Pacheco, Kenneth Walker III, and David Montgomery (among other running backs). The list is extensive and full of stars who missed time, including CeeDee Lamb, Rashee Rice, Puka Nacua, Tee Higgins, Chris Olave, Chris Godwin, Cooper Kupp, George Pickens, Stefon Diggs, DeVonta Smith, Brandon Aiyuk, and Christian Kirk (to name a few). Again, more games mean more snaps, routes run, and ultimately, more hits and injurie
NFL Fantasy Football 18-Game Season Preseason Injuries Bye Weeks
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