NFL Bye Weeks Schedules (2026) - Which Teams Are On Bye?

Below you will find the 2026 NFL bye weeks schedule. See which NFL teams are on bye for every week of the NFL season:

2026 NFL Team Schedules and Bye Weeks

The 2026 NFL schedule features bye weeks for all 32 NFL teams. Bye weeks begin in Week 5 and continue through Week 14. However, there are no teams on a bye in Week 12.

Despite the NFL moving to a 17-game regular season and considering a jump to 18 games, each team gets just one week of rest and extra preparation.

Week 5, Week 9, and Week 14 all feature just two teams on a bye.

Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 10, and Week 13 feature four teams on a bye

Week 11 features a whopping six teams on a bye, which is sometimes referred to as "byemageddon" by fantasy gamers.

NFL Bye Week Strategies and Implications

Fantasy managers should consider bye weeks, even if they decide to disregard them altogether. There are four main strategies when factoring bye weeks in fantasy football.

Avoiding Overlapping Bye Weeks At All Costs:

Method: Heavily consider 2026 NFL bye weeks when making any selection at any point in the draft, avoiding taking more than two players with the same bye.

Pros: Never feel the significant impact of bye weeks, limiting your fantasy team's availability.

Cons: Reaching on potential busts or fading high-upside players due to their team's bye week.

Drafting Depth Pieces with Different Bye Weeks

Method: After drafting a starting lineup, draft and select players who do not share bye weeks with core pieces of the fantasy team

Pros: Always have players ready to enter the starting lineups when key starters are out

Cons: Cuts pool of high-upside bench players down to only those without overlapping bye weeks

Stacking NFL Bye Weeks

Method: Leaning heavily into a roster full of players with the same bye week(s).

Pros: Only feel a significant impact of byes one or two times throughout the season

Cons: All but guarantees a loss for your fantasy team in the week(s) heavily affected by bye weeks

Ignoring Bye Weeks

Method: Always draft "best player available," regardless of bye week schedule.

Pros: Chance to have the best roster in your league

Cons: Leaves fantasy managers susceptible to bye week impacts

Bye Week Strategies In Action: Stacking vs. Avoiding

Based on the 2026 NFL bye week schedule, Week 11 sets up to be the most challenging for fantasy managers. The Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, and Seattle Seahawks are all out of action.

While it might sound like a good idea to limit your exposure to those teams, that could leave you fading key studs. You could reasonably acquire a stacked team consisting of Bijan Robinson, Harold Fannin Jr., A.J. Brown, and Davante Adams. Is it worth missing out on value just because that team would be ravaged by the Week 11 bye? To some fantasy managers, that answer is yes.

On the flip side, fantasy managers who lean into picking several players who have a Week 8 bye could have one of the strongest teams in the league, and a potential Week 11 loss would not be the end of their title run.

Fantasy managers who prefer to stay competitive every week, no matter what, might choose to spread out bye weeks, while others will purposely stack byes or ignore them altogether.

Spreading Out Bye Weeks

Fantasy managers who opt to optimize their bench with players who do not share bye weeks with their team's starters will avoid feeling helpless when the bigger bye weeks come into play.

This strategy might involve taking real-life backup running backs with different bye weeks than their starting running backs, and hoping the bench RB has a fantasy-relevant role by the time the key week arrives

Since you can reasonably acquire two fantasy-relevant quarterbacks in single-QB leagues, it's important not to take two QBs with the same bye, especially in Best Ball leagues.

Bye-week management is especially important in Best Ball leagues that do not allow managers to administer trades or make roster moves after the draft. Be sure not to overlap bye weeks too much in these kinds of formats, as this can lead to zeroes in the score column and derail your hopes of taking home a championship.

Even if you do not heavily consider bye weeks in regular formats, you MUST consider them during your best ball drafts. Having two or three players at the same position who share byes during the same part of the NFL season is a sure-fire way to take losses in these setups.

2026 NFL Bye Weeks – Alphabetical Order

• Arizona Cardinals — Week 14
• Atlanta Falcons — Week 11
• Baltimore Ravens — Week 13
• Buffalo Bills — Week 7
• Carolina Panthers — Week 5
• Chicago Bears — Week 10
• Cincinnati Bengals — Week 6
• Cleveland Browns — Week 11
• Dallas Cowboys — Week 14
• Denver Broncos — Week 10
• Detroit Lions — Week 6
• Green Bay Packers — Week 11
• Houston Texans — Week 8
• Indianapolis Colts — Week 13
• Jacksonville Jaguars — Week 7
• Kansas City Chiefs — Week 5
• Las Vegas Raiders — Week 13
• Los Angeles Chargers — Week 7
• Los Angeles Rams — Week 11
• Miami Dolphins — Week 6
• Minnesota Vikings — Week 6
• New England Patriots — Week 11
• New Orleans Saints — Week 8
• New York Giants — Week 8
• New York Jets — Week 13
• Philadelphia Eagles — Week 10
• Pittsburgh Steelers — Week 9
• San Francisco 49ers — Week 8
• Seattle Seahawks — Week 11
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Week 10
• Tennessee Titans — Week 9
• Washington Commanders — Week 7