Bye Weeks

Niners had Thier bye week 4 this year. I want to know what people think of early season bye weeks. Should the NFL set all the bye weeks later in the season? Say all byes will happen between weeks 7 through 11? I can't help but think making teams play 12-13 weeks straight goes against players safety. Thoughts

Don't like it. Give them all the same week off or AFC one week and NFC the next.

Apparently the CBA talks center around a 17 game season, with 2 bye weeks and every team playing a "non-home" (think Europe, Mexico, Brazil, US cities w/o pro team) game. That's the proposal on the table right now.

Originally posted by FL9er:
Apparently the CBA talks center around a 17 game season, with 2 bye weeks and every team playing a "non-home" (think Europe, Mexico, Brazil, US cities w/o pro team) game. That's the proposal on the table right now.

Interesting. Hopefully each team is required to have one bye week before their THU game and one bye week after their internarional game. That would mean some teams would have their first BYE week as early as Week 2.

Some NFL teams come off the bye even more fatigued. I guess the recovery time resets their stamina and motivation. SOME teams. Not all.

I agree, everyone should have bye weeks between weeks 7 and 11. It doesn't make sense to have them so early in the season.

I just don't see how you can preach about player safety and then make a team play 13 straight weeks. Now if you make the playoffs it could be 16 straight weeks before the 2 weeks off before the Superbowl. I just don't get it.

they tried 2 bye weeks back in '93 (I think it was experimental, or it came about from a deal to get the players/owners to accept the salary cap & FA) i.e., 16 games over an 18 week schedule

dunno why it got tabled, or never brought up again in the more recent CBAs especially since these London games have been played more often...

Edit: after some research, players didn't like how 2 bye weeks "messed with their routine"...but that complaint was before all these TNF and London games became implemented, so that point is prob moot by now

someone explain to me. Why doesn't every NFL team just get a bye week at the same time? Like at Week 8. Just to keep things fair

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:
they tried 2 bye weeks back in '93 (I think it was experimental, or it came about from a deal to get the players/owners to accept the salary cap & FA) i.e., 16 games over an 18 week schedule

dunno why it got tabled, or never brought up again in the more recent CBAs especially since these London games have been played more often...

Edit: after some research, players didn't like how 2 bye weeks "messed with their routine"...but that complaint was before all these TNF and London games became implemented, so that point is prob moot by now

Yep. Other than the two thanksgiving games there were no Thu games back then.

IIRC they didn't have the bye week before the SB that year, either. Don't think they would get away with that now.

So if they go 17 games over 19 weeks along with the current five weeks of playoffs (with no games in playoff week before the SB), they will either need to start the season two weeks earlier the weekend before college FB starts (since they'll be dropping two preseason games), or the SB will have to be two weeks later on the third Sunday in February.

For example, this 2019 season on that schedule would have had W1 on Sun, Aug 25th if started two weeks earlier (with the Thu kickoff on Aug 22nd), or the SB would be on Sun, Feb 16th.

Originally posted by Ensatsu:
someone explain to me. Why doesn't every NFL team just get a bye week at the same time? Like at Week 8. Just to keep things fair

Simple: NFL doesnt want to shut down revenue for a full week midseason.

Originally posted by captveg:

Originally posted by Ensatsu:
someone explain to me. Why doesn't every NFL team just get a bye week at the same time? Like at Week 8. Just to keep things fair

Simple: NFL doesnt want to shut down revenue for a full week midseason.

This.

I still don't know what's wrong with just having Weeks 7, 8, 9 and 10 being bye weeks with eight teams each week, though.

Also, I fully expect expanded rosters if they go 17/19 schedule. Something like 56 man rosters with 49 dressed on gameday.

I would also expect 14 playoff teams, 7 from each conference. Only team that gets a bye in each conference W1 of the playoffs is the #1 seed.

How much do bye weeks cost?

I had totally forgotten about this, but back in 1999-2001 when the new Browns were added to the league, there were an odd number of teams, so they had to spread the bye weeks out through all 17 weeks. So there was a couple teams that had week 1 byes. Then in 2002 they added the Texans and realigned the divisions and everything went back to normal.

For example, in 2000 the Bengals had a week 1 bye, and the Browns had a week 17 bye. So basically, they didn't get one. Thats such BS. lol