NFL Schedule Review - Extra Rest Games

Recent research has confirmed what NFL fans have known for a while: not all schedules are equal when it comes to rest, and it does seem to impact performance. Over a 4-year period, it showed a 4% difference in winning percentage, spiking as high as 14% in 2010. For anyone interested in reading more, link below.

Inside Slant - Innovating the NFL Schedule

With that in mind, a poster named TurnTwo on Reddit put together a chart of the schedule showing rest advantages. The Patriots have 2 games with the rest advantage, 6 without.



Click on the image to see it in full-size.

Original Reddit thread here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/33i3uj/i_analyzed_the_2015_schedule_to_see_which_teams/

The Seahawks (1 for, 5 against, -22 days) have the worst, although the Bills have a legit gripe with 2 for, 5 against. The Dolphins are equal, while the Jets get a slight advantage.

Looks from the chart that Miami is 2 and 2, whereas the Pats have 2 with a rest advantage and 6 without, which is no picnic. The Pats don't get anyone coming off the bye, however, whereas Seattle and Washington each have 3 games against teams coming off the bye. That seems like a fairly sizable competitive disadvantage.

pencilneckgeek said:

Looks from the chart that Miami is 2 and 2, whereas the Pats have 2 with a rest advantage and 6 without, which is no picnic. The Pats don't get anyone coming off the bye, however, whereas Seattle and Washington each have 3 games against teams coming off the bye. That seems like a fairly sizable competitive disadvantage.

Click to expand...

They get the Redskins off a bye but the Patriots play on Thursday the week the Redskins have a bye.

I see Pats playing Washington after they have their bye. But it's Washington, and it's not going to matter how much extra rest they get.

Seattle has a tough schedule(from this rest perspective), their three real bad rest advantage games are ALL versus good teams. Teams that are more likely to take advantage of the time off and not come in rusty.

This schedule is no bullshyte. Not only are they SB champs which should pump up most teams the first half of the year anyway, they got a useless early bye and heavy travel the 2nd half of the season.

Now, on top of that, we have 4 games (ignore total days rest differntial, it's # of games) with rest disadvantage of 3+ days in a short week. That is a huge disadvantage BTW. Normal 6 days rest playing a team with only 3 or 4. [Hold the presses, these are actually normal 6 days rest for NE vs. 10 or 11 previous Thur. night game for the opponents. So not nearly as bad. But still bad. To continue...] They are all (and a -1 vs Jets) in the 2nd half. One after the other, after the other, after the other when fatigue and travel impact will be at it's worst.

SEA got screwed too.