Fantasy Football Today - 🚨 SCHEDULE RELEASE! Best and Worst Fantasy Schedules (05/12 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  We've got a running back with an amazing Fantasy playoff schedule plus the teams that have the best and worst matchups to start the season. We'll tell you why the Giants might be the one team to fade if you care about strength of schedule.  Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The schedule is out, and I am going to tell you which running back is going to win you your fantasy league based on his playoff schedule. But you have to wait for that. This is a teaser. You have to wait approximately 15 seconds. Dave, do you know which running back is going to win you? Not a clue. Oh, how about the guy who runs for 200 yards

almost every time he faces this opponent? Derrick Henry gets Houston twice in the fantasy playoffs. And Seattle. Seattle gave up the third most fantasy points to running backs last year. They did sign Draymond Jones, the people up there, beef up their run defense, but no player has a better postseason schedule,

weeks 15, 16, and 17, than Derrick Henry. No running back anyway. Houston, Seattle, and then at Houston. So does that make you want to draft him in round one? No. No, I don't think so. Does that make you want to take him ahead of Josh Jacobs or even Brees Hall? I don't think so.

Does it do anything for you? To me, no. This show, look, I'm 100% honest. This show's probably not going to do all that much for me, but we will give you information, and you will decide what it means to you. What does all this mean to you, Dave, this schedule stuff? We knew what the opponents were for every team months ago.

I mean, we know who most of these teams are going to play next year already. There's like three games, I think, that are determined based on how a team finishes within their division everything else is already like set yeah so it's it's more about putting it into the context of well do they have any rough spots in their schedule where they play like on a short week and then they play again on a on a something like that. You know, there are weird quirks in the schedule. And there are certain things that fantasy managers should know.

For example, it was on this show at this time last year when I was freaking out because in week 14, the NFL scheduled six teams on by. Now, picture this. It's the first year or it was the year where we knew that playoffs had to start in week 15. It's an 18-game schedule, etc., etc. And the last week of the regular season, there's six teams on bye. A bye-nado in week 14. This year, the NFL got the memo. Only two teams are have a bye are the Arizona Cardinals, who I don't know how many exciting players there will be on Arizona this year, and the Commanders. Their league, their team, their season could go south pretty quickly if things don't go right. So I think we're better off as far as across-the-board fantasy playoff positioning goes with the way that they scheduled Week 14.

But it does not mean that we don't have binators, Adam. There are two binators and there's one mini binator. I shall call it a mini binator. Are you talking about week 10? I am talking about week 10. You've already seen it. Yeah. Kansas City, the Eagles are Super Bowl champions. The Dolphins and the Rams are on by in week 10. You've already seen it. Yeah, Kansas City, the Eagles, our Super Bowl champions, the

Dolphins and the Rams are on by in week 10. The two weeks that have six teams on by are weeks 7 and 13. One thing though, Dave, so those are the binatal weeks. I think if you look at the NFC East last year, we knew this

time last year, we knew the NFC East had the easiest schedule. And three teams made the, we knew the NFC East had the easiest schedule. And three teams made the playoffs out of the NFC East, and the commanders came pretty close. And by the way, there are actually four games now that are determined by where you finish in your division.

Okay. Yeah, because it used to be three now. What the hell do I know? Go ahead. But the NFC East has a brutal, brutal schedule this year. Much harder, at least on paper. You never know how it's going to play out. According to the New York Post, the three teams that have the toughest schedule

based on last year's win percentages are the Giants, the Cowboys, and the Patriots. But if you think about who the NFC East played last year, they played the NFC North, which was, I mean, you just threw all over those teams and ran on them too. I mean, the Lions for half the season, you ran on them. You threw on them all year. The Vikings had a horrible secondary.

The Bears were one of the worst defenses. Instead, now this year, they're getting the AFC East and the NFC West. So, and, you know, it's whatever. I think the NFC East and the AFC East and the NFC West. So, and, you know, it's whatever. I think the NFC East and the AFC East have pretty difficult schedules. And by comparison, I would say the AFC North has it relatively easy. Now, listen, it stinks when you're in the AFC North

because you have to play the other teams in the AFC North, but they also play against the AFC South. So that means a game against Houston, Indy. I don't know if Tennessee's defense is going to be great. Usually Vrabel gets those guys going, but who knows? Jacksonville, who knows about their defense? They also take on the NFC South. I think that there's good defense still in the NFC South, but we know that the offenses aren't necessarily locked in and that could make things tougher on those defenses,

make things easier on the opponents that they play. That's good news for the AFC North. Okay, and honestly, the Giants have the real short end of the stick. Seven of their first 11 games are on the road. I saw a tweet from Warren Sharp at Sharp Football. He said the Giants are the first team to play on the road seven times in the first 10 weeks of the season since the NFL reinstated bi-weeks in 1990. No team has ever

had to do that, but I think they're on the road seven of the first 11 weeks. This is a team that coasted on an easy schedule last year. When they played good teams, they got slaughtered. They're going to have to legitimately improve because it's not going to be such a cakewalk for them. No, it's 7 of 11.

And listen, I think we can find some really terrible things about a lot of teams' schedules, including several teams playing multiple short-week Thursday night games. There's a distinction between just a regular Thursday game and then the short week Thursday game. The NFL made a change in their schedule. You might have heard about it earlier this week, but there are a bunch of squads that play multiple Thursday night games on a short week this year. Trying to find it.

Here they are. First of all, crazy quirk. Packers-Lions, both of their games, they play each other twice, they're in the same division. Both of them are on Thursdays. So those two teams, two Thursday night games.

The Bears, they're going to actually be the first NFL team to play two short week Thursday games ever because they've got one, I think it's week five, and then another one in week 10. The Commanders, the 49ers, the Saints, and the Steelers. How about the Steelers, the only AFC team to have multiple short week games and they're both at home. I believe everybody else has a one and one. Obviously the Packers and the Lions do. now this doesn't include the cowboys for example the cowboys play back-to-back thursday games but one of those is

going to be a full week of rest they play on thanksgiving full week of rest and then they take on seattle after that i believe and seattle also plays on the thursday of thanksgiving so we got a question here from scott and he says who is the team you are high on and now when you take a look at their schedule, you are not so high on them. Do you have an answer? I have absolutely no idea. Yeah.

Because the one thing that I haven't done yet is gone through each schedule and, and, and looked at a team and listen, I'm never going to do this with a team. That's got a high powered offense. This is always going to be a team that we think can have an improved offense,

but Oh, you know, like the giants might be a decent example of this we think the giants offense could take a big step forward they added some firepower to their passing game offensive line seems to be a little bit better uh and saquon's back but man it's seven of their first 11 games are on the road that's gonna wear them down that's not gonna be easy they have two back-to-backs and then three games in a row on the road, and that's how they make up their seven road games. So that's going to be tough on them. That's an example of what we're looking for, though. We're looking

for teams that have a tough schedule early on, and we're also looking for teams that have a good schedule early on that might take up a couple of players and make them a little bit more interesting i would say that the schedule is best used as a tiebreaker so for example let's say we're looking at um i'm trying to think of somebody on the giants that would be meaningful besides saquon barkley well maybe daniel jones i think daniel jones yeah so like daniel let's i'm debating between daniel jones and gino so we think keep in mind i haven't looked at seattle schedule i might take a look down and look at seattle schedule right now and go this is terrible i don't know i haven't looked at it yet but if seattle's schedule is more favorable or denver's is more favorable early on that's the tiebreaker for me i'll take that quarterback

over somebody like daniel jones who's just he's gonna have a tough go of it being on the road so much so i actually do like the afc schedules, even though they do face the AFC East. And here's the thing about the AFC East, right? Buffalo, I don't really know about their defense. It's not as good without Von Miller, and he may not be ready for the start of the season, as we heard today. Defensive back, I think they'll be better

this year. You'll get some of their safeties healthy and Shredavious White, a year recovered from the ACL, but they usually have a very good defense. The Dolphins traded for Jalen Ramsey. They've got some good pieces there. The Patriots, last year they weren't a tough matchup, but they're never a layup.

And then you got the Jets, and the Jets are just probably a brutal matchup. So the AFC West does get the AFC East, so that's not good. But they also get the NFC North, which has Minnesota and Chicago and Detroit and Green Bay. And Detroit could have a good defense this year. That wouldn't shock me, but still. No, I agree.

And then you get these shootouts, hopefully, in the AFC West. If you're Denver, for example, you don't have to face Denver, and you get the Chiefs, and you get the Raiders, and the Chargers are kind of an iffy defense. So Russell Wilson and Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos, they've got Las Vegas, Washington, at Miami in week three could be tough cross country trip,

at Chicago in week four, Jets in week five, that could be tough, then the Chiefs, then the Packers, then the Chiefs before they're by. So their first nine games, you got the Chiefs twice, you got the Bears, you got the Raiders, you got Washingtons before their bye. So their first nine games, you got the Chiefs twice. You got the Bears. You got the Raiders. You got Washington.

That was a team that I noticed. And I like Justin Herbert too. I like the Broncos. And I like the Chargers to get off to good starts. Justin Herbert, he's got Miami in week one. I think that could be tough. But both Denver matchups are week 14 or later for Justin Herbert. So if you're going to ask me the teams that, if I were going to change anything,

probably a little bit of an advantage to Denver and the Chargers. And the Giants really are the worst. To me, they have the worst schedule. Because if they struggle with 7 of 11 road games and tough teams to begin with with even if it gets a little bit more favorable down the stretch you may not even get there if you're relying on the giants on your fantasy squads you may not even get there in your fantasy leagues sure so that's my answer misery loves company let me give you a couple other quirks that i'm just noticing i'm

finally getting around to looking at every team's schedule. So forgive me if I don't mention your team, everybody that's watching and listening. But we will get to it, and at some point, we'll be able to go over this with the fine-toothed comb. Raiders start the season at Denver, at Buffalo, Pittsburgh at home, at the Chargers. So they're on the road three of their first four games. That's not fun.

New Orleans, Tennessee at home to open the season, then back-to-backs at Carolina, at Green Bay, home against Tampa, and then at New England and at Houston. So four of their first six games are on the road. We talked about the Giants already. They've got four of their first six. Do we care about road games? Because, I mean, I keep saying that about the Giants,

but it's almost historic how much they're going to be on the road. But I don't really care that much about teams that are on the road. I don't like teams that have to travel a lot, that have to fly miles. Some teams have a lot more miles than other teams. Sure, but so what harm does it do to go on the road? Now, on one hand, these guys have been playing college football and you know they've been traveling already for multiple years of their lives what you don't see is sometimes when they're on the road there's delays um you know just like we experience yeah but when

we travel do we know sometimes players get stuck overnight like when you're playing a sunday night game you don't get home till like 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. What does that matter? What does that matter? It doesn't affect them. Listen, when you're on the road seven times in 11 weeks, it catches up with you. Just think to yourself that you've got to travel,

go on 14 different flights over an 11-week span. Man, that's going to wear on you. That's what I'm saying. It has to be very eye-opening. It's not just, oh, they're on to wear on you. Yeah. But that's what I'm saying. It has to be, you know, very eye-opening. It's not just, oh, they're on the road. That's bad. By the way, the Giants at Arizona week two at San Francisco week three, they are staying on the West Coast for that.

Right. So hopefully, like, that's what I was about to say. It makes sense for them to do something like that. But they won't do that when they go to Miami and then Buffalo, and they won't do that for their midseason three-game road trip to Vegas, Dallas, and Washington. Won't do it then. All right.

Is there anything else you'd like to add, sir? I would like to break down the primetime games for the Cardinals and the Texans. I'll give you five minutes, Dave. Okay, he's done. He's done. I don't need five. We're good. Atlanta only has

one spotlight game. It's an international game. I believe Indianapolis only has one spotlight game. That always kind of tells you what the league expects from those teams. So the fact that they're not putting

Arizona in primeetime at all. Houston, they've got the number two overall pick in the draft. He's not going to be on primetime. Atlanta's a team that made a bunch of interesting changes this offseason. League doesn't care. They're not giving them the chance. Same thing with Indy. They took Richardson

fourth overall. They're not giving him any primetime games. I kind of feel like that means something. I don't know how much I can apply it to fantasy, but I would say that if the league knows something about those teams, then maybe we should kind of go with the league on it. Are you excited about these games?

Ready? Panthers at Falcons. That's weak. Oh, no. Panthers at Falcons. Just are you excited? Are you excited about Panthers at Falcons? Do you want to tune in?

I mean, I'll pay attention. Yeah, it's okay. Texans at Ravens. Yeah, kind of. Bengals at Browns. Kind of. There's a good team that I'm interested in in every single one of these games. Jaguars at Colts.

Bucks at Vikings. Yeah, I mean, that's interesting. Titans at Saints. I'm not clearing out my schedule to watch these games. Is this week one? This is week one. Week one sucks. Right, right.

You know what? They don't care because everybody's going to be watching anyway. And by the way, we've got a hell of a Monday night game week one. Yeah, Thursday night is Lions at Chiefs. That's an interesting one. Monday is Bills at Jets. Sunday night is Cowboys at Giants. Right. But Eagles

at Patriots? Okay, maybe that's interesting. Dolphins at Chargers to me is my favorite game. That'll be fun. Raiders at Broncos could be fun. Packers at Bears is very intriguing. I already know Bears fans that are ready to say, this is our year.

Rodgers is gone. Justin Fields gets to beat the Packers finally. And I'm just thinking to myself, how devastated are they going to be when they're open one? All right, everyone. That's it for our schedule release bonus pod. Much more coming, everybody. Yeah.

Including the Bills, who play four of their first six at home. How about that? Well, wait, one's in internationals, so never mind. Actually, wait, let me check the Bills' schedule. I want to see if they're going to be in freezing cold weather for the end. Oh, of course they are. Well, yeah, Dallas at home. Championship week against New England.

You'd like for them to be on the road in the fantasy playoffs, but they have two more games. Well, week 16, they're at the Chargers. Yeah, that'll be a bonanza. Mark it. All right, see you later, everybody. You've already ruined a game, Adam. No one will remember six months from now. I will.

I will. Seven months. Pepperidge Farm remembers. Don't know that reference, but I will Google it. See you later, everybody.