NFL Attempts to Explain Why Chargers Play So Many Teams Coming off Bye Weeks

The Chargers appear to be at a disadvantage on the NFL schedule, so here's what the league thinks.

Jim Harbaugh | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

There are some really fun things on the NFL schedule for the Los Angeles Chargers. 

Those Chargers get a couple of easy-looking games to start the season against Arizona and Las Vegas. They get a handful of primetime games and some strong chances at revenge games. 

But there are also some negatives. They play this wicked lineup all in a row starting in Week 3: 

• Bills
• Seahawks
• Broncos
• Chiefs
• Rams
• Texans
• Ravens

One would think that would be the worst negative of the entire schedule for the Chargers. 

But it’s not so simple. Now that onlookers have had a little time to digest the entire thing, there’s another issue around bye weeks that seems like it could hit Jim Harbaugh’s club where it hurts. 

NFL schedule problem for Chargers gets small explanation

Jim Harbaugh | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Zooming out on the NFL schedule, one notable detail emerged for the Chargers: They need to play four games in which their opponents enter the matchup after a bye week of rest. 

That sounds like a problem. 

Eric Smith of Chargers.com sat down with Blake Jones, the NFL senior director of broadcasting, and brought this up. The explanation? One part bad luck. But one part a nod to data that says it’s not that big of a deal. 

“However, we've also looked closely at a lot of data over the past few years and what we've found is that we are not far off from a 50-50 in playing opponents coming off their bye,” Jones told Smith. “I think it's no longer the obvious disadvantage it used to be. We're seeing trends of teams staying in rhythm being beneficial rather than teams breaking for their bye and then coming back to get ready.”

We’ll see how the Chargers and onlookers feel about data and sample sizes after the season on this topic. 

But context feels necessary. These are the teams that will come off a bye before playing the Chargers: 

• Chiefs
• Texans
• Patriots
• Raiders

So, three would-be AFC contenders and an AFC West rival. Not great. 

The NFL continues to hit the interview circuit around the schedule release and promotes the idea that things like rest advantages, statistically speaking, aren’t that big of a deal. But if it’s only teams having bad seasons performing poorly in these scenarios and skewing the data, can we fully rule rest disparities as irrelevant? 

Regardless, we’ll see how the Chargers feel about the whole thing in the aftermath of the season.

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