I did a quick study of who each team faces coming off of their BYE week for 2024. Generally speaking teams do not want to face “fresh” teams coming off of the BYE. However, I will throw something else out there that I always think about. During the BYE is when the opposing team has the most time to study you and put together a gameplan. So they may catch something that they wouldn’t have caught during a normal week. They also have time to put wrinkles in that wouldn’t normally be in the gameplan. After facing a team coming off of a BYE week, all future opponents have a chance to see the film and what the BYE week team tried to do. Then they can build on it. So facing a bunch of BYE week teams could be dangerous from a strategic standpoint as teams start piling on.
There are a total of (20) teams this year that will face an opponent coming off of a BYE week. The Lions are only facing the Vikings coming off of a BYE. The 49ers are facing the most opponents off of their BYE week with (4). The second most is the Colts with (3). Then the Saints, Broncos, Dolphins, Giants, Seahawks, Commanders and Bucs with (2). An interesting quirk is that the Giants/Bucs and Broncos/Colts will be facing EACHOTHER coming off of their respective BYE weeks. Which means those (4) teams do not have a BYE week advantage at all this season, since it was nullified by the opponent they face coming out of the BYE. There are (12) teams who do not face a single team coming off of a BYE, and we all know the Packers are one of them. The others are the Bills, Jets, Patriots, Ravens, Bengals, Jags, Chargers, Eagles, Vikings, Falcons and Panthers. And if anyone see’s a team I have incorrect, please feel free to say something.
Then there is the “mini-bye” coming off of Thursday’s. The only team we face coming off of their mini-bye is Houston. The team facing the most mini-bye opponents are the Seahawks with (4). The Chargers and Broncos are next with (3). Once the regular BYE and mini-bye are added together, there are still (4) teams that do not face an opponent coming off of a BYE or mini-bye. Those teams are the Ravens, Patriots, Eagles and Vikings.
