Bye Week Question

So, every year we have one, and always at different times.

This year it is very early. And for me I always look ahead and when I saw this bye being so early, I didn't like it.

That has changed now with Simon and Lane being out and now Zach.

What do you think of our bye this year, and do you think this is a good time for it, or at another time and why?

Largent80":3v024dlv said:

So, every year we have one, and always at different times.

This year it is very early. And for me I always look ahead and when I saw this bye being so early, I didn't like it.

That has changed now with Simon and Lane being out and now Zach.

What do you think of our bye this year, and do you think this is a good time for it, or at another time and why?

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Honestly, I think our first three weeks were a little brutal considering the teams we played, but I still prefer a little more of a balanced bye week. I can't really say if this will work out to be the best time for it or not, as injuries can pop up anytime, and later in the season may still end up having been a better time. Honestly If I could choose, I'd have our bye week somewhere between week 7 and week 11 in most years. As always though the unpredictability of injuries can make any given week a better week for the bye.

Panthers had a week 4 bye last year and they won 12 of 13 following it.

Good teams cope

I hate bye weeks because I don't get to watch my team play. I'm glad it's out of the way early and can now enjoy many consecutive weeks of watching them play. I don't know if it makes a difference having a bye early or later in the season because as you pointed out there are other things to consider like injuries. I'm glad we're having our bye week now because of those injuries. But there could be more injuries too, so....I don't know.

To me an early bye week benefits younger teams who could use it to do some extra film study and corrections for thier younger guys. For older teams, the later bye is better for rest.


early bye also makes it that much more important to get a first round bye in the playoffs so you can get a break again.

Largent80":19hpxqax said:

So, every year we have one, and always at different times.

This year it is very early. And for me I always look ahead and when I saw this bye being so early, I didn't like it.

That has changed now with Simon and Lane being out and now Zach.

What do you think of our bye this year, and do you think this is a good time for it, or at another time and why?

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Feel exactly the way you do!

Don't we historically have a poor record following the bye week? That, plus traveling all the way to WAS...

Bigpumpkin":c9y9w2g8 said:

.......Interestingly, we do not play until Monday Night....an extra day off!

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That's so we have a much shorter interval between games with Dullass coming to the C-Link the following Sunday. Got to give them as much opportunity as possible to be competitive you know.

I've never really understood why the NFL feels the need to stretch this bye-week BS out over so many weeks. (((Just a wild guess it's somehow about cash money, but I could be wrong.)))

There's 32 teams in the league. Typically, where ever you are in the country, you can only get about 6 televised games each week (TNF, 3 Sunday Day, SNF & MNF). Mix two more games in there and that makes 16 teams that play that week. The NFL could easily take care of the bye weeks over a two week period near the middle of the season and be done with it. It seems it would make it a bit more fair across the league and a whole lot less arbitrary.

I'm sure there's some logistics BS argument to be made, but I'm sure it's about $$ in the end.

Of course the bye week is about money. Years ago there were no bye weeks. Then they discovered that they could get an extra weeks worth of advertising and network dollars by throwing in a bye week to extend the season. A few years after they brought in the bye week they tried implementing two bye weeks. That really sucked. I think that experiment only lasted 1 year. I hate the bye week.

LawlessHawk":ngauuauv said:

I've never really understood why the NFL feels the need to stretch this bye-week BS out over so many weeks. (((Just a wild guess it's somehow about cash money, but I could be wrong.)))

There's 32 teams in the league. Typically, where ever you are in the country, you can only get about 6 televised games each week (TNF, 3 Sunday Day, SNF & MNF). Mix two more games in there and that makes 16 teams that play that week. The NFL could easily take care of the bye weeks over a two week period near the middle of the season and be done with it. It seems it would make it a bit more fair across the league and a whole lot less arbitrary.

I'm sure there's some logistics BS argument to be made, but I'm sure it's about $$ in the end.

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I nominate you for next Commish.


And yeah, as oldhawkfan said, of course it's about money. Problem with your model is that if half the teams aren't playing on successive weeks, ratings will be significantly lower in a lot of markets twice a season and ratings=advertising dollars.

oldhawkfan":3i4fzron said:

Of course the bye week is about money. Years ago there were no bye weeks. Then they discovered that they could get an extra weeks worth of advertising and network dollars by throwing in a bye week to extend the season. A few years after they brought in the bye week they tried implementing two bye weeks. That really sucked. I think that experiment only lasted 1 year. I hate the bye week.

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Yes, I think we all realize the Bye Week itself magically turns a 16 week season in to a 17 week season... my point was to the NFL's need to stretch it out over 8 weeks (weeks 4 thru 12) and thus arbitrarily giving some teams a very early season bye and other teams a later season bye.

Regarding loss of viewership, the average American with out Sunday Ticket still only gets 6 games a week no matter how many teams are playing. Am I going to watch the Sunday afternoon Cowboys-Jaguars match-up this week if it happens to be on in my area? Probably not...

LawlessHawk":1kymavh4 said:

......
Regarding loss of viewership, the average American with out Sunday Ticket still only gets 6 games a week no matter how many teams are playing. Am I going to watch the Sunday afternoon Cowboys-Jaguars match-up this week if it happens to be on in my area? Probably not...

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But see you've kind of answered your own question.....if half the teams aren't playing then you might get stuck with the kind of matchup you suggest (Cowpatties v. Jags, or worse yet Raiders v. Jags, etc.) and ratings would suffer quite a bit in that event.

Again, I personally love your idea. While you're at it could we put in a rotation where a team on the road for it's Thursday night game one year gets a home Thursday night game the next and so forth? That would be fair to a team like, oh say THE SEATTLE SEAHAWKS who will be on the road for their Thursday night game this year for the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW!! Better yet, how about just getting rid of all Thursday games except Thanksgiving?

Seahawkscrazy":250p7edn said:

Don't we historically have a poor record following the bye week? That, plus traveling all the way to WAS...

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Historically, yes.

Under Carroll, we're 2-2 after a bye week.

hawksfansinceday1":1hqj0asa said:

LawlessHawk":1hqj0asa said:

......
Regarding loss of viewership, the average American with out Sunday Ticket still only gets 6 games a week no matter how many teams are playing. Am I going to watch the Sunday afternoon Cowboys-Jaguars match-up this week if it happens to be on in my area? Probably not...

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But see you've kind of answered your own question.....if half the teams aren't playing then you might get stuck with the kind of matchup you suggest (Cowpatties v. Jags, or worse yet Raiders v. Jags, etc.) and ratings would suffer quite a bit in that event.

Again, I personally love your idea. While you're at it could we put in a rotation where a team on the road for it's Thursday night game one year gets a home Thursday night game the next and so forth? That would be fair to a team like, oh say THE SEATTLE SEAHAWKS who will be on the road for their Thursday night game this year for the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW!! Better yet, how about just getting rid of all Thursday games except Thanksgiving?

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I'm with you on that! And I'm sure the players wouldn't mind skipping Thursdays.

As far as match-ups, there's crappy match-ups (in my personal opinion) that they choose to televise nearly every week in my area or at least match-ups that I'm not going to waste my Sunday watching if my teams not on. Nationally, people are going to watch TNF, SNF and MNF whether your team is playing or not... Sunday afternoons not so much. But if the NFL thinks they've some how left a nickel on the table...

oldhawkfan":51ut2gwt said:

Of course the bye week is about money. Years ago there were no bye weeks. Then they discovered that they could get an extra weeks worth of advertising and network dollars by throwing in a bye week to extend the season. A few years after they brought in the bye week they tried implementing two bye weeks. That really sucked. I think that experiment only lasted 1 year. I hate the bye week.

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It's ALWAYS about money, which is why we have week 4 byes now instead of weeks 7-10 like it used to be.

TV networks complained about too many teams off = too big of a chance of bad games. So voila! Week 4 byes.

Week 4 byes are a joke. Last years week 11 bye came at the right time for a super bowl push, but we got this

Just gonna throw this out there:

The bye followed by an average team is usually not ideal for strong teams. The 49ers killed the Cardinals two years ago on the road then sleep walked through the first quarter of the Rams game, and that was the end of the Alex Smith era.

The Redskins following a bye is one thing, but the Redskins getting humiliated on prime time by that plus facing Seattle.

We know who the better team is, but I like the Skins to make it interesting and probably cover. I've seen teams get crushed and then go up against juggernauts on prime time and each time they find a way to make it interesting.

After seeing it happen with Tampa just recently, it's legit. Two years ago the Jets were shut out 34-0 by SF , then hosted Houston on MNF and easily covered.

Football players have a ton of pride. Bad games don't always indicate talent deficiencies as much as fans like to think they do.

ADB last week said that when the schedule came out he didn't like the WEEK 4 "Bye". But, after there physical, draining games and with injuries he was grateful for where it fell. This was the same interview on KIRO710am that he mentioned, after the Broncos game, that some players were still recovering from the Charger game conditions.