GoWesleyan

What do you think players/coaches think is the best week for a Bye week. I think I've heard NE coaches say that they want it to be far enough in the season for them to get a good amount of proof/disproof of their pre-season strategies. Is the later the Bye week the better? Of course it depends on the particulars of the season, i.e. injuries, opponents, etc - but if a team could pick when their bye week occurred, what would you guess would be the most popular week requested?

CrazyDave

I'd guess betwee week 7 and week 10?
Good time for guys who are nicked up to get a rest/recuperate (sp?)

JoeSixPat

I'd suspect 3/4 of the way through the season or so... aside from having it early in the season it all depends on the situation

Injuries are usually the biggest factor in determining when a bye is "best" - if a key player gets another week to heal and it makes the difference between an L and a W that;s a pretty strategic bye week

Aside from that, 3/4ths of the way through the season is often when players - especially rookies - hit a wall. After that point the adrenaline of having the playoffs looming can help players, so that would be my preferred time.

I do seem to recall some situations where a bye is at the end of the season - which, depending on the situation can be key... an extra week for a team that doesn't have a playoff bye can give them the same advantage other bye teams do

Conversely, having a 2 week bye if the team DOES have a bye already can have an adverse impact on preparation for that team

So it all depends

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Lamanai

Strategy-wise I don't know - probably later in the year is better. If you are thinking about injuries, take this for what is worth: I recall former Patriot Bobby Hamilton making comments about the timing of bye weeks. The general sense of his remarks were that a bye week in the early-middle of the season isn't so bad. He said you have to remember that by about the 4th week of the season, players have already been at it since two-a-days in TC in mid-to-late July, plus preseason.

arrellbee

Byes (open weeks) start in week 3. The last open weekend is week 9 or week 10. Last year, it was weeks 3 thru 10 with 4 teams having open weeks each of those weeks. For some reason, this year it is weeks 3 thru 9 and week 6 and week 7 have 6 teams each with an open week.

So the best you can do is in the way of having a bye week late is week 9 (or 10).

JoeSixPat

Except for the 2001 season in which the Patriots had a bye week 16

But I guess that was the exception to the rule because of 9/11?

Although it looks like the 1993 Pats also had a bye week in Week 11 - and the 1992 Pats had a bye in week 1 - but maybe the rules were different then?

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spacecrime

The scheduling system changed in 2002.

To the original question: If picking a bye week ahead of time, I'd go for a very late one.

Coast2CoastPatsFan

The 1992 Pats had a bye in Week 1 because of the hurricane in Florida (they were scheduled to open the season in Miami but that game got postponed until later in the season). They ended up opening the season in Week 2 at Anaheim vs. the Rams, a game I attended.

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Pats726

NO..the bye that year had to do with the fact that there were 31 teams...so each week, at least ONE team had a bye....the Pats had the last one...and another earlier for 911.... but the odd 31 teams did it...as far as when the BEST time is..later is always better...but mid season on is fine..

mgteich

the later the better