Eli thinks the Giants schedule is fraudulent.
On the other hand, you have the Giants. New York has four games against opponents with extra rest, including three where the opponent is coming off of a bye. Denver has a bye in week 5, and plays the Giants at home in week 6; Seattle has a bye in week 6, then travels to New York in week 7; Kansas City has a bye in week 10, then travels to MetLife to face the Giants in week 11. The Giants have a fourth game against an opponent coming off of a bye — against the Rams in week 9 — but both New York and Los Angeles have a bye in week 8. Finally, the Cowboys play on Thanksgiving in week 12 and on TNF in week 13 before facing the Giants on the road in week 14; that gives Dallas 10 days of rest before that December matchup, compared to 7 for the Giants.
So the Giants got a raw deal there: the 49ers (Arizona week 9, Dallas week 7, Washington week 6) and Lions (NO week 6, Cle week 9, GB week 8) are the only other teams to face three opponents coming off an extra week’s rest. Washington has a week 5 bye and hosts San Francisco in week 6, Dallas has a week 6 bye and travels to San Francisco in week 7, and Arizona has a week 8 bye before going to San Francisco in week 9. Detroit travels to New Orleans in week 6 after the Saints week 5 bye, heads on the road to face the Packers in week 9 after Green Bay’s week 8 bye, and hosts the Browns in week 10 after Cleveland’s week 9 bye.
Okay, so the Chiefs and Rams get a break when it comes to their opponents’ rest days, and the Giants, Lions, and 49ers are victims of poor scheduling. What about the other side — i.e., each team’s own rest? Well, Kansas City is the big winner here, too.
Because the Chiefs have two Thursday night games — the kickoff game and week 7 in Oakland — Kansas City has 10 days of rest before its game in weeks 2 and 11 days of rest before its Monday Night game in week 8, giving the Chiefs three more days of rest than the Eagles and Broncos, respectively. And since the Chiefs face the Giants after Kansas City’s bye, that’s a third game with extra rest.
Meanwhile, a few teams — including the Giants — are in worse shape. Because New York plays the previously idle Rams after the Giants own bye, New York doesn’t have any games with a long rest advantage. The Giants only rest advantage comes when — after playing on Thanksgiving in week 12 — New York has three extra days in advance of a trip to Oakland.
The table below shows the rest advantage/disadvantage for each team in 2017. Here’s how to read the table below, using Kansas City as an example. Kansas City has 1 game with an extra rest of 6-8 days (i.e., after the team’s bye), and 2 games with an extra rest of 2-4 days. The “Extra Total” combines those two categories, but gives double weight to long rest, so Kansas City has a 4 in that category. Meanwhile, Kansas City’s opponents have 0 games with an extra 6-8 days of rest, and 0 days with an extra 2-4 days of rest. The Opp Extra Total combines those two, but again gives double weight to the 6-8 category. The “Net” column is what the table is sorted by: it subtracts the “Opp Extra Total” column from the “Extra Total” column, and Kansas City is at +4 here. The Net Days shows the actual number of extra days of rest overall vs. each team’s opponents.
| Team | Extra 6-8 | Extra 2-4 | Extra Total | Opp Extra 6-8 | Opp Extra 2-4 | Opp Extra Total | Net | Net Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KC | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 12 |
| LAC | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| BUF | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| CHI | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| PHI | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| MIN | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| CLE | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| HOU | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| NO | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| LAR | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| OAK | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| ARI | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| CAR | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| MIA | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| IND | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| CIN | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| JAX | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| TEN | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| DEN | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | -2 |
| DAL | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | -1 | 0 |
| BAL | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -1 | -1 |
| NE | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 5 | -1 | -3 |
| TB | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | -1 | -3 |
| NYJ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 | -3 |
| PIT | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 4 | -1 | -4 |
| ATL | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | -1 | -4 |
| WAS | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | -1 | -5 |
| SEA | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 4 | -1 | -5 |
| SF | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | -3 | -7 |
| GB | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -3 | -9 |
| DET | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | -3 | -12 |
| NYG | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 7 | -6 | -22 |
| Avg | 0.8 | 1.0 | 2.7 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 2.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
The Giants are at -22 days of extra rest and a -6 in the Net category, easily the worst in the NFL. That’s a bad break for New York.
One other note for the trivia folks out there. Just about every game features 6-8 days of extra rest, 3-4 days of extra rest, or 0-1 days of extra rest. But there is one game with 2 days of rest, and the Colts are the beneficiaries. In week 16, the Colts are playing on Saturday the 23rd, while the Texans play 48 later on Christmas day (both games are scheduled for 4:30 Eastern). The two teams play in Indianapolis in week 17, in a game that could decide the division: and not only are the Colts home, but they have 2 extra days of rest.