On Thursday, the NFL schedule was released. After that happens, one thing I like to do is to measure how much rest each team has relative to its opponents each week (although Brian Burke beat me to the punch this year). In past years, some teams got really screwed when it came to extra rest, but that wasn’t the case this year.
The Lions have the most friendly schedule this year when it comes to rest. With the exception of a week 7 game on Sunday following a week 6 game on Monday Night Football, Detroit doesn’t have any games this year when it played a game more recently than its opponent. The Lions don’t play any team coming off of a bye or a Thursday night game, and Detroit gets extra rest following its own bye, following its Thanksgiving game, and potentially two extra days in week 17 (the Lions might play on Saturday in week 16, while Detroit’s week 17 opponent, Green Bay, plays on Monday night in week 16).
On the other hand, you have the Patriots. New England has three consecutive games against opponents coming off of a bye: the Browns have a bye in week 7 before traveling to New England in week 8, the Ravens have a bye that week before hosting the Patriots in week 9, and both the Eagles and Patriots have a week 10 bye before facing off in Philadelphia in week 11. In addition, the Texans have a Thursday night home game in week 12, and 10 days later, host the Patriots.
The table below shows the amount of extra rest each team (and its opponent) has this year. Note that all 5 week 16 games that are possible Saturday games are considered Saturday games. The table is sorted from most favorable to least: e.g., the Lions face opponents with 12 days of fewer rest than them, the Chargers face opponents with 10 fewer days of rest, etc.
| Team | Opp Byes | Extra Rest (Own) | Extra Rest (Opp) | Extra Rest vs. Opp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lions | 0 | 0 | -12 | 12 |
| Chargers | 0 | 0 | -10 | 10 |
| Bills | 0 | 0 | -8 | 8 |
| Buccaneers | 0 | 0 | -8 | 8 |
| Panthers | 0 | 0 | -8 | 8 |
| Bears | 1 | 3 | -4 | 7 |
| Cardinals | 0 | 0 | -6 | 6 |
| Cowboys | 0 | 0 | -6 | 6 |
| Jaguars | 1 | 0 | -5 | 5 |
| Raiders | 1 | -1 | -5 | 4 |
| Rams | 1 | 0 | -4 | 4 |
| Texans | 1 | -1 | -4 | 3 |
| Redskins | 1 | 0 | -3 | 3 |
| Chiefs | 0 | 0 | -3 | 3 |
| Colts | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Titans | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bengals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Giants | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 |
| Falcons | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 |
| Vikings | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 |
| Seahawks | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 |
| Steelers | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 |
| Broncos | 1 | -1 | 2 | -3 |
| Browns | 1 | 0 | 4 | -4 |
| Jets | 1 | 0 | 4 | -4 |
| Saints | 2 | -1 | 5 | -6 |
| Ravens | 2 | 0 | 7 | -7 |
| 49ers | 2 | 0 | 10 | -10 |
| Packers | 2 | 3 | 13 | -10 |
| Dolphins | 2 | 0 | 11 | -11 |
| Eagles | 3 | 0 | 11 | -11 |
| Patriots | 3 | 0 | 13 | -13 |
The “Opp Byes” column shows how many games each team has against teams coming off of byes. Obviously this totals to 32, but it is not evenly distributed. The Eagles and Patriots each play three teams coming off of byes, while nine teams face zero teams coming off of byes.