Why Packers’ Early Bye Week Could Be Incredible Blessing in Disguise

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Every year when the NFL schedule comes out, a coach’s eyes immediately look for the bye week.

The Green Bay Packers will have their bye this week. A Week 5 bye might not be ideal because it means there will be 13 consecutive weeks of games just to get to the playoffs.

However, there’s an interesting – and recent – parallel.

Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles opened the season by alternating wins and losses. In Week 4, they were routed 33-16 at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – it was 24-0 at one point – to stumble into the bye with a 2-2 record.

“We’ve got to get our bodies right and we’ve got to make some changes as far as what’s going on fundamentally.”

That might have sounded like Packers coach Matt LaFleur after Sunday night’s 40-40 tie at the Dallas Cowboys sent his team’s record to a disappointing 2-1-1. Instead, that was Eagles coach Nick Sirianni in the moments after the debacle in Tampa.

The Eagles came out of the bye and won their next 10 games. Their streak was snapped in a 36-33 loss at the Commanders in which quarterback Eagles Jalen Hurts suffered a concussion early in the first quarter. Philadelphia won its final two regular-season games, trounced the Packers in the wild-card round and rolled to a Super Bowl championship.

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (26) runs against the Green Bay Packers in last year's playoffs. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Added together, the Eagles played 17 consecutive weeks. They won 16, with nine of those by at least 12 points.

Goodness knows LaFleur would be p***ed off if the Packers were thinking that far down the road. But it does show what’s possible for the Packers, who started the season with a pair of dominating wins before a pair of inexplicable performances.

The Packers need to get healthy. Not that they’re in particularly bad shape, but they played at Dallas without starting right tackle Zach Tom and starting left guard Aaron Banks. Plus, defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt missed most of the game with a knee injury.

When the team gets back to work next week, there’s a chance receiver Christian Watson will at least be on the practice field following last year’s torn ACL. Watson is a big-play threat and arguably the best blocker among the receivers.

It’s not just the injuries, though. The offense is seeking an identity and the defense was destroyed by the Cowboys after three superior performances. Fundamentals, scheme and philosophy all need to be examined after Green Bay blew leads against Cleveland and Dallas the last two games.

The Eagles took full advantage of last year’s bye.

“It just worked out that that was really good timing for us to kind of all get together, have honest conversations and move forward,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said before last year’s Super Bowl.

“I think there are a bunch of turning-point moments in this season and, I think I've probably said this before, when you get the opportunity to play in the Super Bowl, there's probably 20 moments you could look at if they would have gone a different way, you're probably not sitting here. But, certainly, in hindsight, the timing of that bye and getting together was a huge part.”

Of course, the time off will be useless if it’s not time well spent. That was the case for the Eagles last season, with quarterback Hurts and coach Nick Sirianni either attached at the hip or attached at the ear via their phones during the week off.

“I thought it was a very business as usual approach in our bye week. I really did,” Sirianni. “I just thought it was really a lot of business as usual. … We didn't have any panic. We didn't have any, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ We just tried to figure out the things that we were doing well and the things we weren’t doing well and try to get going on that road.”

When they’re playing their best, the Packers have proven they will be incredibly difficult to beat. When they’re not playing their best, well, you get what happened against Cleveland, when the Packers frittered away a 10-0 lead in the final few minutes, and Dallas, when they blew four leads.

The Eagles are one of three teams to win the Super Bowl following a Week 5 bye.

The Saints in 2009, unlike the Packers in 2025, had all the momentum in the world following a 4-0 start. They came out of the bye with a 21-point win en route to a 13-0 start, then beat Brett Favre and the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game and Peyton Manning and the Colts in the Super Bowl.

The Giants in 1990 also rolled into the bye with a 4-0 record. They ultimately started the season 10-0, then beat the Bills in the Super Bowl on Scott Norwood’s wide-right field goal.

The NFL went to an eight-division format in 2002. From 2002 through 2024, 80 teams had a Week 5 bye. Two teams won the Super Bowl and three teams lost the Super Bowl, including the 2010 Steelers, who lost to the Packers in the battle for the Lombardi Trophy. In total, 25 teams reached the playoffs – those teams went 20-5 immediately after the bye – and 21 teams won division titles.

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