Packers: Late bye week comes at ideal time ahead of final six games
The Green Bay Packers’ bye week couldn’t be more perfectly timed.
The timing of the bye week can make a huge difference in the regular season. Every year, a couple of unlucky teams have their bye in Week 4. That means for those teams to win a championship, they have to play 16 weeks in a row followed by a two-week gap to the Super Bowl.
In that situation, the hope is they earn a first-round bye. But even then, that team has to win consistently and play 13 weeks in a row before finally getting a week off.
Since 2013, the Packers have had their bye in Week 4 twice. Yet this is the first time they’ve had a bye as late as Week 11. A week off is beneficial at any point in the season, but more so later on.
Perhaps the Packers could’ve done with their bye two weeks ago when they played the Los Angeles Chargers. It was just one of those games. Green Bay didn’t play anywhere close to its best football. Play the Chargers 100 times, and a performance that bad might only happen once.
Fortunately, they had one more game to go. The loss in Los Angeles would’ve been a sour note to enter the bye with. Instead, the Packers bounced back with a big performance against the Carolina Panthers and now enter their time off with an 8-2 record on the back of a victory.
And what a great time to have a bye week. The Packers are relatively healthy already, but many players have been playing through minor injuries. They have the chance to get close to 100 percent, which is especially key for a player like Davante Adams, who has only recently returned from a toe injury. The week off could help him get fully healthy for the next game.
The coaches and players all have time to prepare for a crucial six-game stretch to end the season. Win all, or most of those games, and the Packers will have a chance to earn a first-round bye in the playoffs.
Hopefully, the team will return from the bye refreshed and ready to make a playoff push in the final month-and-a-half of the season.
For that reason, the bye couldn’t be more perfectly timed.