Will the Early Bye Week Help or Hurt the Patriots?

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Oct 10, 2010

Will the Early Bye Week Help or Hurt the Patriots? Everybody loves a day off from work. Even more, everybody loves a week off. In the NFL, though, a week off can be a blessing for some, but a curse for others.

Week 5 is upon us, and that means a week off for the Patriots. All in all, it’s certainly an interesting week to have a bye week.

For starters, the bye week lets the Patriots get an extra week to prepare for life without Randy Moss. Maybe even more importantly, a week off gives the Pats an entire week to let the story blow over.

Moss and his new team, the Vikings head to New York to play the Jets on Monday night while the Patriots put their feet up and watch. It will be a spectacle, but the Pats still won’t have to play until six days later when the story will likely have subsided some.

Players like Fred Taylor and Nick Kazcur can certainly benefit from a week off as both are suffering from injuries.

Also, a week off means an extra week to prepare for Week 6 which will bring the Baltimore Ravens to Foxboro for a highly anticipated matchup with the Ravens.

A week off isn’t neccessarily the greatest thing either, though, for the Pats. They are coming off a huge win on Monday night in Miami. They have to be feeling good about themselves, but a week off runs the risk of that momentum wearing off.

Not only that, an early bye week means the Patriots will play 13 consecutive weeks leading up to the playoffs. A first-round bye would be the only chance for a week off the rest of the year.

The Jets are off Week 7. The Dolphins get a break this week. Other AFC playoff contenders have a little bit more generous scheduling. The Ravens (Week 8), the Broncos (Week 9) and the Chargers (Week 10) all have relatively late bye weeks that could play in their favor as the season gets later.

Last week was the first week of NFL byes. The last week is Week 10. There’s no question that there are positives and negatives when it comes to an early bye week in the NFL.

For this Patriots team, will an early week help or hurt the team going forward? Share your thoughts below.

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