Bills have the biggest rest disadvantage in 2025 among playoff contenders

[Sojourner]

We apparently had a cakewalk of a schedule coming into the season, now that people think the wheels are falling off it’s time to clutch at straws and find a reason they’ve been and possibly could be at the end of some losses.

 

i am not advocating you are making an excuse in any way yourself as it is advantageous to have a bye then play but rather focus on the first point that it was a fortuitous season before week 1. Most teams play 2 and sometimes 3 opponents after their bye week or a long week due to Thursday Night Football nowadays. We got 2 of those games… so a bye week and two 11 day rests. 
 

Team just hasn’t played the football they are capable of. 
 

 

[ClosetFan]

8 hours ago, Low Positive said:

We didn’t get a bye before the chiefs game, unless you count the Panthers as a defacto bye week. 

In effect we did get a bye because the Chiefs had a short week to prepare, then had to travel for the next game.

[Sierra Foothills]

8 hours ago, transplantbillsfan said:

I got to thinking about this because I was thinking ahead to the Patriots game when we play a division rival coming off their bye... which sucks.

 

We also played the Falcons coming off their bye.  We know how that went.

 

We also played another division rival in the Dolphins coming off a Thursday night game with an extra 4 days of rest.

 

And ya know what, we're going to play another big conference game against the Bengals where they're coming off a Thanksgiving Thursday Night Football game.

 

Yes, the Bills benefitted from the bye week coming in to play the lowly Panthers and a Saints team we got extra rest for after a TNF game  and will benefit from playing on TNF next week against the Steelers, but we have 2 divisional road games this year where we are scheduled with a rest disadvantage.  

 

All rest disadvantages against conference opponents except the Steelers.

 

 

By itself, I wouldn't really cry foul, but the Bills are -7 in rest disadvantage days for the whole season.  The next closest AFC teams even remotely contending for an AFC playoff spot are the Steelers and Browns both at -4 followed by the Texans at -2.  All the other AFC contenders for the playoffs have a rest advantage with the Jags (if we wanna call them a contender) at +1, the Chiefs and Patriots at +2, the Bengals and Colts at +3 and the Ravens and Chargers at +5.

 

Those are just the contenders for playoffs in the AFC.  To show the disparity in rest advantages, there's a 32 day difference from the team with the greatest rest advantage in the Lions at +13 to the team with the biggest rest disadvantage in the Raiders at -19.

 

And yes... gotta go out and win the games you play... but I guarantee statistically it's significantly more advantageous to play a team with a rest advantage rather than a rest disadvantage.  You would really think in a league that touts its own parity, they would really be trying to make the schedule a little more equal than a 32 day rest disparity from top to bottom.

 

Thanks for doing the research.

 

I always appreciate when posters put some actual work into a post.

 

I do feel sorry for the Raiders. They're trying to rebuild and in a league where the majority of games are one score or less, the minus 19 is a significant handicap.

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Sierra Foothills

[DrBob806]

I do believe there's some odd scheduling in the NFL every season, no doubt. 

 

Kind of off topic, but I totally disagree on the "flex" scheduling. It potentially screws fans of the home team, having to make changes.

[CirclnWagons]

After the Miami game, I’m not sure you could classify the bills as “playoff contenders” but I appreciate your optimism 

[nucci]

teams get plenty of rest. Not an excuse

[Captain Hindsight]

11 minutes ago, CirclnWagons said:

After the Miami game, I’m not sure you could classify the bills as “playoff contenders” but I appreciate your optimism 

13 days ago they took down the Chiefs. This is a good team that has had a few bad weeks

[Jrb1979]

20 minutes ago, Captain Hindsight said:

13 days ago they took down the Chiefs. This is a good team that has had a few bad weeks

A good team isn't 2-3 in their last 5 games.  They have struggled to put up points in multiple games this season.  Against the Dolphins they were shutout for 3 quarters, against KC they managed 7 points in the 2nd half, and against Atlanta 7 in the 2nd half.  

Unless they change their offense scheme, they will struggle as teams have figured them out. Stop Cook and dare the Bills to beat with their passing game that is not good. 

[jcamm1966]

Don't here other teams doing the poor pitiful pearl routine, not like we are playing the NFC and AFC West

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

Appears to me that they’ve rested plenty during several games already 

[nedboy7]

I usually go with the games are rigged against the Bills. But can’t even use that one this year. 

[Long Suffering Fan]

For those who are saying that rest does not matter, they get plenty of rest, etc., remember McDermott is 9-0 playing games off a bye week.  His teams do better with more time to prepare.

 

Yes, we should not use it as an excuse and we should still beat bad teams, but it does matter.  If the Bills had the bye week before the next Patriots game instead of the other way around, I know I would feel like that was an advantage.

[nuklz2594]

there is a difference between pain and being injured. all the the rest in the world will not make this soft team tough

[US Egg]

35 minutes ago, jcamm1966 said:

Don't here other teams doing the poor pitiful pearl routine, not like we are playing the NFC and AFC West

Workin’ in a 60’s doll reference. Nice!

[frostbitmic]

Judging by the amount of games our Defensive players and receivers miss due to aches, pains and injury I'd say we're plenty rested.

[DrBob806]

1 hour ago, nedboy7 said:

I usually go with the games are rigged against the Bills. But can’t even use that one this year. 

The best example was the snow game a couple years ago when they moved it to Detroit. 

 

I couldn't believe they moved that game indoors. Only game in my lifetime the Bills got a gift. 

 

I remember McD's interview on Thursday, he's in his office saying " I don't know what we should do?" Uh, how about getting out of town before the snow comes? 

[JustHewIt]

1 hour ago, Jrb1979 said:

A good team isn't 2-3 in their last 5 games.  They have struggled to put up points in multiple games this season.  Against the Dolphins they were shutout for 3 quarters, against KC they managed 7 points in the 2nd half, and against Atlanta 7 in the 2nd half.  

Unless they change their offense scheme, they will struggle as teams have figured them out. Stop Cook and dare the Bills to beat with their passing game that is not good. 

 

Pretty much every team has had a stretch of losing 2 of 4, and has looked bad at times. Are they all bad teams? 

 

Apparently the Colts, rams, Seahawks, broncos and eagles are the only good teams.  We can jump straight to Championship Sunday and be one step closer to what many here are dying for: the off-season!

 

What a truly great way to enjoy the NFL

[BillsShredder83]

14 hours ago, transplantbillsfan said:

I got to thinking about this because I was thinking ahead to the Patriots game when we play a division rival coming off their bye... which sucks.

 

We also played the Falcons coming off their bye.  We know how that went.

 

We also played another division rival in the Dolphins coming off a Thursday night game with an extra 4 days of rest.

 

And ya know what, we're going to play another big conference game against the Bengals where they're coming off a Thanksgiving Thursday Night Football game.

 

Yes, the Bills benefitted from the bye week coming in to play the lowly Panthers and a Saints team we got extra rest for after a TNF game  and will benefit from playing on TNF next week against the Steelers, but we have 2 divisional road games this year where we are scheduled with a rest disadvantage.  

 

All rest disadvantages against conference opponents except the Steelers.

 

 

By itself, I wouldn't really cry foul, but the Bills are -7 in rest disadvantage days for the whole season.  The next closest AFC teams even remotely contending for an AFC playoff spot are the Steelers and Browns both at -4 followed by the Texans at -2.  All the other AFC contenders for the playoffs have a rest advantage with the Jags (if we wanna call them a contender) at +1, the Chiefs and Patriots at +2, the Bengals and Colts at +3 and the Ravens and Chargers at +5.

 

Those are just the contenders for playoffs in the AFC.  To show the disparity in rest advantages, there's a 32 day difference from the team with the greatest rest advantage in the Lions at +13 to the team with the biggest rest disadvantage in the Raiders at -19.

 

And yes... gotta go out and win the games you play... but I guarantee statistically it's significantly more advantageous to play a team with a rest advantage rather than a rest disadvantage.  You would really think in a league that touts its own parity, they would really be trying to make the schedule a little more equal than a 32 day rest disparity from top to bottom.

I. Don't. Care. Thats excuses for basement dwellers. This team needs some toughness. We need some borderline criminals on this team

[jcamm1966]

1 hour ago, US Egg said:

Workin’ in a 60’s doll reference. Nice!

4 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

I. Don't. Care. Thats excuses for basement dwellers. This team needs some toughness. We need some borderline criminals on this team

It's not like we went to Europe

[90sBills]

12 hours ago, Kelly to Allen said:

 

The 23 chiefs lost to the Aidan O'Connell raiders on Christmas.... The offense looked horrible 

How is that relevant to the ‘25 Bills?