Best Ball Playoff Schedule: Weather/Dome Implications

May 17, 2024

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Megan Shoup

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Part 1 – Weather/Dome Implications

Part 2 – High Game Totals

The NFL Schedule Release was Wednesday night and for best ballers like ourselves, it’s a big night! Now we have information on bye weeks, strength of schedule (when played), and of course, the best ball playoff schedule (Weeks 15-17).

As we discussed Fanspeak Network’s Sibling Showdown, there are certain teams that we like better than others to target in terms of their best ball playoff schedules.

In the coming weeks I’ll be charting and breaking down the best ball playoff schedule from multiple angles:

-Game Environment – Weather Impacts/Dome

-Game Environment – Likely High Totals/Potential Shootout

-Playoff Picture as a whole for all 32 NFL teams

Today, we’re looking at the game environment for weather and dome implications for Weeks 15-17. Below is a chart I created for the playoff schedule and color-coded the dome games and likely warm weather games in Florida and California.

Obviously, other outdoor locations could have fine weather or minimal weather impacts, but we can’t predict that 7 months in advance. Outside of rain, California and Florida stadiums should likely have warmer conditions in late December.

Then of course there are “bad weather” locations in the snow belt and northeast like Buffalo, Cleveland, Green Bay, and New England. I didn’t mark them red. But that’s something to be a little cautious about.

So I marked dome in green and California/Florida games in yellow. See below…

GREEN = DOME GAME

YELLOW = CALIFORNIA OR FLORDIA OUTDOOR GAME – LIKELY WARM WEATHER

TEAMS TO TARGET BASED ON GOOD WEATHER/DOME ENVIRONMENT:

-Arizona Cardinals

-Atlanta Falcons

-Detroit Lions

-Houston Texans

-Jacksonville Jaguars

-LA Chargers

-LA Rams

-Las Vegas Raiders

-Miami Dolphins

-Minnesota Vikings

-New Orleans Saints

-SF 49ers

-Tampa Bay Buccaneers

-Tennessee Titans

So almost half the NFL teams have 2 of the 3 playoff weeks in a good weather/dome environment. The Raiders have all dome games. The Jaguars have all warm weather games. And the Bucs have a little of both.

This doesn’t mean I’m only targeting these 14 teams, or especially these 3 teams. But especially for top-tier offenses and/or teams that have a weak strength of schedule, it helps move the needle to like those team stacks more.

But my favorite teams that are top offenses and have good weather environment overall for playoffs (including week 17) are:

-Falcons

-Lions

-Texans

-Jaguars

-Rams

-49ers

-Bucs

-Titans

As I mentioned on my Short video, my favorite 3 teams to target considering everything are the Falcons, Texans, and 49ers. But we’ll get into all the other breakdowns next week in more detail. Hope this helps to start your team and playoff stacking!