There’s definitely an advantage when an NFL team has a bye week, but the 49ers aren’t taking full advantage of what others have received this season.
The players reported to practice Monday after their last game six days earlier, a 31-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. The team that had the exact same time off is the 49ers’ Week 10 opponent, the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In nine games, the 49ers had the disadvantage of playing twice against opponents who benefited from a week’s rest before the contest. The Cleveland Browns’ bye came in Week 5 and the next week they hosted a 49ers team that also had to travel east for the contest.
Two weeks later, the 49ers hosted the well-rested Bengals right after Cincinnati’s Week 7 bye. Both games were losses for the 49ers, who clearly didn’t have the upper hand in terms of player recovery time and preparation.
Instead of finally having the advantage of being more rested than their opponent in Week 10, the 49ers not only play against a team that had the same time off, but also travel to the East Coast again.
The NFL’s scheduling team has the difficult task of crafting an 18-week, 32-team schedule that now includes a full slate of Thursday night games as well as three Thanksgiving Day games. Here are the 49ers again drew the short stick.
There are some teams that play twice on Thursday nights in 2023, and the 49ers are one of them. Playing on Thursday results in a very shortened work week for a team’s preparation and recovery. The 49ers played their first Thursday Night Football game in Week 3 and will do so again on Thanksgiving Eve in Seattle against the Seahawks.
Not only are the 49ers once again the team traveling to their second Thursday game, but two of the other teams scheduled for two TNF games are playing their second after a full week of preparation and rest.
The Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys have their second TNF game of the week following their Thanksgiving Day games. This gives them a regular week between competitions, as opposed to two games with a short week before the second.
There are four other teams scheduled to play two Thursday games – the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders, who all play on Thanksgiving, and the New York Jets, who shortened the week before their Black Friday game and final game on Thursday evening in week 18.
The 49ers enter their game after the break rested – and awaiting the return of Deebo Samuel after he missed two games with a shoulder injury – but not with all the usual benefits of a week off. While there is no way to make the NFL schedule completely fair, it appears the 49ers’ opponents have had the upper hand in more ways than one.
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