In fantasy football, Weeks 15-17 are the most important weeks of the year. This is true in your normal 12-team redraft home league, and it’s especially true in large-field best ball tournaments like Best Ball Mania, in which someone will win a $2 million grand prize based on how they perform in Weeks 15-17.
One small issue: It’s not easy to predict who’s going to score the most points in December when you’re drafting before September. Last year in this article, we had the Patriots with the most difficult schedule in Weeks 15-17 relative to their schedule during the fantasy regular season.
The Patriots’ offense, however, ended up being far better than expected, and New England scored 28, 42, and 38 points during those three weeks, in three cold-weather games nonetheless.
This is all to say that this isn’t a perfect exercise, but given the outsized importance of the playoff weeks, it’s still worth making an effort to quantify which teams have easy vs. difficult roads. You don’t want to go too far and totally ignore every other variable in favor of picking players with easy schedules in Weeks 15-17, but at the very least, it can serve as a tiebreaker if you’re stuck between two players.
With that in mind, let’s break down each team’s schedule during the fantasy playoffs.
First, we’ll take a bird’s-eye view of each team’s matchups (which can also be referenced for game-stacking purposes when drafting):
| Team | Week 15 | Week 16 | Week 17 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARI | NYJ | @NO | LV |
| ATL | @WAS | TB | NO |
| BAL | @PIT | CLE | @CIN |
| BUF | CHI | @DEN | @MIA |
| CAR | CIN | @PIT | SEA |
| CHI | @BUF | GB | DET |
| CIN | @CAR | @IND | BAL |
| CLE | @NYG | @BAL | IND |
| DAL | @LAR | JAX | NYG |
| DEN | @LV | BUF | @NE |
| DET | @MIN | NYG | @CHI |
| GB | MIA | @CHI | HOU |
| HOU | JAX | @PHI | @GB |
| IND | @TEN | CIN | @CLE |
| JAX | @HOU | @DAL | WAS |
| KC | NE | SF | @LAC |
| LV | DEN | TEN | @ARI |
| LAR | DAL | @SEA | @TB |
| LAC | SF | @MIA | KC |
| MIA | @GB | LAC | BUF |
| MIN | DET | WAS | @NYJ |
| NE | @KC | @NYJ | DEN |
| NO | @TB | ARI | @ATL |
| NYG | CLE | @DET | @DAL |
| NYJ | @ARI | NE | MIN |
| PHI | SEA | HOU | @SF |
| PIT | BAL | CAR | @TEN |
| SF | @LAC | @KC | PHI |
| SEA | @PHI | LAR | @CAR |
| TB | NO | @ATL | LAR |
| TEN | IND | @LV | PIT |
| WAS | ATL | @MIN | @JAX |
Some sportsbooks already have a spread and total posted for every game of the NFL season. It’s important to keep in mind that these numbers aren’t perfect and limits are relatively low, but still, the books stand to lose real money if they hang bad numbers, so their offerings are likely more accurate than our preconceived, finger-in-the-air notions of which teams will be good or bad. With that in mind, let’s take a look at every team’s implied team totals in Weeks 15-17.
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