Teams coming off a bye have been horrible this season. Three wins and nines losses to this point. All the time off actually hurts the players, especially since training camps were so condensed. Right now, players don’t need more rest; they need to keep improving on their fundamentals. The lack of practice time makes it hard to get players in game shape with great pad level and explosion. Four days off makes it even harder to regenerate what was gained from the start of the season. I’d be worried if my team was now entering a bye week.
I’ve seen this factoid mentioned a number of times in relation to the Jets already, but something about it didn’t smell right. Mostly: 3-9. A 12-game sample in this case doesn’t seem like enough to indicate anything.
As it turns out, the 12 teams who have had bye weeks so far are a combined 28-43 for the season. And while that’s still a better rate than 3-9, it makes the 3-9 stat look a lot less glaring, no?
Of course, one could argue that if the bye week is actually hurting NFL teams this year, the games played after a bye week shouldn’t be counted against the 12 teams in question. Still, if you take those three wins and nine losses out of their records, they’re a combined 25-34.
Think of it in terms of baseball, where we’re better at identifying randomness: If a 25-34 team went on a 3-9 stretch, would that seem at all notable?
Perhaps some of the factors Lombardi lists are negatively impacting NFL teams on bye weeks. But they’re also undoubtedly benefiting from the rest and the extra time allowing players to return from injuries. I would not hold the Jets’ bye week in Week 8 against their chances in Week 9.
Tedquarters 