The schedule is out, and everyone has an opinion on which ones are hard or easy, what the big games are, and who got hurt the most by their bye or home-road split. We don't care as much about that wins or losses stuff, but here are some takeaways from a purely fantasy perspective.
Fast or slow starts. In general, it looks like a less than ideal start to the season for Green Bay. In the first six weeks they play San Francisco, Cincinnati and Baltimore, all on the road, and have a bye. A faster start appears to loom for Andrew Luck and Indianapolis, which plays Oakland, Jacksonville, Miami and San Diego in its first six games.
Another team that looks like it could get off to a fast start is Washington (so lets hope Robert Griffin III is ready to go). They have a Week 5 bye, but their games in the first six weeks will be against the Eagles, Packers, Lions, Raiders and Cowboys. Not that all of those teams are pushovers, but there isn't a defense to be feared in that group. The Patriots will play the Bills, Bucs, Falcons and Saints in the first six weeks.
Another potential slow starter: the Browns, which is the price of playing in the AFC North, have early games against division-rivals Ravens, Steelers and Bengals. Perhaps those defenses won't be as good as they've been in the past, but it doesn't look like a great situation for the offense to come out like gangbusters.
Early and late byes. I like to avoid early bye weeks, especially with things like kickers and defenses. Green Bay and Carolina have Week 4 byes, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay and Washington have theirs in Week 5. If I need a tiebreaker on a couple of players, I would rather have my choice playing early than need to be replaced. (Some might want to get that bye out of the way, which I understand.)
Four teams have byes in Week 12 -- Buffalo, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Seattle. This is new; I believe two teams had byes in Week 11 last year, but none after that. Week 12 is a pretty important week for playoff pushes, so it's something to keep in mind. You don't want to overrate late byes (who knows which players will be starting or healthy at that point), but I hope the league goes back to getting all or most byes out of the way by Week 10 in the future.
Playoff weeks. I think a lot of people are in leagues where the playoffs start in Week 14; I know I am. So lets look at some of the good or bad matchups (seemingly) in Weeks 14-16.
Houston plays Jacksonville and Indianapolis in Weeks 14-15. Tough to be certain at this early stage, but those look like nice situations, possibly, for their offense. Green Bay plays Atlanta and Dallas in those same two weeks. Those teams, respectively, have Denver and Pittsburgh in Week 16; not as appealing. San Francisco gets a tough tilt with Seattle in Week 14, but in 15 and 16 they'll face Tampa Bay and Atlanta.
On the flipside for the Packers, two of those three games are at Lambeau Field, where December weather may be a factor. Seattle is at San Francisco and the Giants in Weeks 14 and 15, which look like lesser situations.
One random, non-fantasy note: ESPN can't be overly thrilled with its Monday night schedule. We get Washington-Philly to open Week 1, followed by a 10:15 p.m. Chargers-Texans game that few on the East Coast will see. And then here are the next five Monday games: Steelers-Bengals, Raiders-Broncos, Dolphins-Saints, Jets-Falcons, Colts-Chargers. Excited about any of those matchups? Me either.
The schedule link can be found right here.