The NFL schedule has plenty of twists and turns that force fantasy football managers to stay on their toes. Whether it’s a stretch of tough matchups for one team or something of a bye week, there’s always information to react to from a fantasy standpoint.
As the first bye weeks hit from the 2023 NFL season, what teams are not playing this week? What’s the fantasy football fallout? Let’s dive in.
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Los Angeles Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers going on bye this week presents an issue for fantasy managers relying on their numerous star players. Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen, Austin Ekeler, etc. all will need to be on your bench this week, which forces fantasy managers to turn to their bench.
Keenan Allen blocked him like it was nothing ⚡️ @Keenan13Allen pic.twitter.com/olRLcmZpUa
— NFL (@NFL) October 4, 2023
The key thing to watch for the Chargers coming out of their week of rest will be the health of Ekeler. The veteran RB has not played since Week 1 but returned to practice right before their matchup in Week 4 against the Las Vegas Raiders.
This is a positive sign that Ekeler is likely to return in Week 6 when the Chargers take on the Dallas Cowboys, which should have fantasy managers everywhere set to rejoice. However, if we come out of the bye week and Ekeler is still limited in practice, there’s no telling when he’ll return to the lineup.
Cleveland Browns
Fantasy managers are still undecided on what to do with the Browns’ offense and what that means for fantasy football. Deshaun Watson has yet to return to top-tier form, and that’s impacting players like Amari Cooper, Elijah Moore, etc.
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The key thing to watch for Cleveland coming out of their bye week will be the health of their starting QB. We saw that rookie QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson is nowhere near being ready to help captain this offense and keep it afloat, so if Watson is not ready to return due to his shoulder injury in Week 6, Cooper and Moore — along with Jerome Ford — will be buried in fantasy rankings.
Additionally, do the Browns attempt to get Kareem Hunt more involved in the offense coming out of their week off? Ford’s had a couple of tough matchups back-to-back as the main option, but the coaching staff could be keen on getting Hunt the ball more moving forward.
If that’s the case, Ford’s going to be hard to trust in starting lineups for the remainder of the year. We’ll need to monitor this situation closely as the Browns get set to take on the San Francisco 49ers in Week 6.
Seattle Seahawks
Just like with the Chargers, fantasy managers will be hurting with having the Seahawks on their bye here in Week 5. DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Geno Smith, and Ken Walker need to be relegated to benches everywhere, leaving some pretty big holes on fantasy rosters.
Coming out of the bye week, the big thing to keep an eye on will be the involvement of Jaxon Smith-Njigba. We’ve seen historically that NFL teams use the bye week as an opportunity to survey what’s happened up to that point of the season and look for ways to involve their rookies a bit more if they’re showing signs of potential.
JSN has just 12 receptions through the first four games of the season, but it’s important to remember that he had wrist surgery just a handful of days before the start of the regular season. Could Seattle use this time off as an opportunity to scheme new ways to get the ball into their first-round pick’s hands?
If so, now might be a nice time to go and acquire JSN for next to nothing. See what a fair trade offer for him would be in our free PFN Trade Analyzer!
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The 3-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be absent from the NFL schedule in Week 5, and fantasy managers have a very different opinion of this offense now than they did coming into the year.
For some people, you couldn’t pay them to draft Mike Evans or Chris Godwin in fantasy football this year as the Bucs were set to go from Tom Brady to Baker Mayfield. However, Baker’s been fantastic in this offense, and the team’s stringing together wins because of it.
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The backfield will be the key thing to watch coming out of the bye for Tampa. Rachaad White’s handled a full workload for this offense, but he’s been incredibly inefficient with the opportunity (3.3 yards per attempt on 63 rush attempts).
Could the team start to give rookie RB Sean Tucker a bit more volume to see what he can do? The team’s winning even with the deficiencies in the backfield, so what could this team look like if they were getting more production out of their backfield?
This will be an interesting situation to monitor as the team sits down to review everything that’s taken place through the first four weeks. White may be a sell in fantasy leagues while you can still get a decent return.