Does an early bye week offer an advantage for NFL teams? - ESPN

THE SEATTLE SEAHAWKS were reeling, losers of three straight, and Mike Macdonald set aside a few hours to find hard solutions.

It was Week 10 of the 2024 season, and Macdonald, a first-time head coach after two years as the defensive mastermind in Baltimore, scheduled a meeting with all three of his coordinators and assistant head coach Leslie Frazier.

This was early in the first bye week of Macdonald's tenure, and he made clear the Seahawks were about to «self-scout everything we're doing,» as one source with direct knowledge of the meeting recalled. The coaches assessed where the team was and concluded they must treat the bye like it's the offseason, evaluating everything from pace of play to how they practiced. «You can reset your team [during the bye] if you do it the right way,» the source said. «As long as you have no pride about what you thought you were.»

What followed was a four-game winning streak to catalyze a late playoff push that ultimately fell short. Among the changes: Seattle decided to go slower on third downs on offense, in order to read the defense. Then-playcaller Ryan Grubb had come from a college staff at Washington and was accustomed to playing with tempo. On defense, Macdonald made a bye-week choice to start linebackers Ernest Jones IV and rookie Tyrice Knight over veterans Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker, with Macdonald realizing the new starters fit his scheme better.

This is the power of the bye week, which several teams wielded starting last week. The Atlanta Falcons, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears all had a Week 5 bye, the earliest possible under the NFL's scheduling format. The Houston Texans and Minnesota Vikings are in the midst of Week 6 byes.

They all face the