I was thinking about how we are currently in 2nd place in the AFC East without even playing a game yet and it dawned on me that a week one bye does have one advantage- we will get to see what the Pats and Bills do a week in advance. That may not seem like such a huge deal now but by the time we get to week 10, it can actually become a strategy.
For instance, let's say that we're 1 game ahead of the Patriots in week 8...then the Pats lose (making us two games ahead). If we have a banged up receiver or RB, then maybe Gase sits that person entirely for the week since we already know we will be at least 1 game ahead win or lose.
It's a warped logic, I know, but it could come in handy to watch the rest of the league before we have to take the field.
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If there's an actual benefit to losing the bye I'd say it's giving Cutler more time to work with the team before the games start to count.
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At times I wonder if we will be rusty week 2 like some teams were this week, but there's also a chance our guys will be pumped and that could help us up front on both sides of the ball.
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Has there ever been an NFL game where one team is playing its first game against a team that already has one under it's belt?
But that's an interesting thought, when we play the Chargers we'll know more about them than they do of us.KeyFin likes this. -
If that was a benefit it seems like that would, at best, cancel out the fact that our starters haven't seen game style action since week 3 of preseason so we are 3 weeks out hoping to look in regular season form.
I actually trust Gase to have the team ready, but I don't want to understate the very real possibility that we come out a little flat, and a little rusty. -
There were a few seasons where there were only 31 teams.
The 1999 NFL season was the 80th regular season of the National Football League. The Cleveland Browns returned to the field for the first time since the 1995 season. Also, the Tennessee Oilers changed its name to Tennessee Titans, and the league retired the name "Oilers" – a first in league history.
The return of the Browns increased the number of teams to 31, the first time the league had played with an odd number of clubs since 1966. As a result, the NFL was forced to give at least one team a bye each week; Previously, barring extreme circumstances, a club never received a bye during the first two weeks or last seven weeks of the season. Under a new system, for ten weeks of the season (Week #1 to Week #2, and Week #10 to Week #17), one team was scheduled a bye; for seven weeks of the season (Week #3 to Week #9), three teams sat out. This format would continue for the next two seasons until the Houston Texans joined the NFL in 2002 and returned the league to an even number of teams.Puka-head likes this.