New York Jets Get Biggest Rest Advantage, San Francisco 49ers At Biggest Disadvantage With 2023 NFL Schedule
The NFL released the 2023-24 schedule last week. Of course, people focused on the matchups and primetime games. That makes the most sense, since those draw the most viewers. But one important -- and often overlooked -- detail in scheduling is rest advantage. And the New York Jets received plenty of that. The San Francisco 49ers ... didn't.
Warren Sharp, a contributor for the NFL on Fox, did a comprehensive breakdown of rest advantages -- and disadvantages -- for all 32 NFL teams.
The NFL schedule provides the New York Jets with several rest advantages throughout the 2023 season. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
The methodology is pretty straight forward: on a given week, is either team getting more rest than its opponent? This occurs thanks to bye weeks and the NFL's ever-increasing cache of non-Sunday games.
The New York Jets are the biggest beneficiary of additional rest thanks to the 2023 NFL schedule, while the San Francisco 49ers face the league's biggest disadvantage.
As you can see from the chart, the Jets have a 12-day rest advantage over their opponents this season. That's tied with the Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders for the largest in the league.
However, a deeper dive shows that the Jets benefit slightly more than those two teams, despite having the same number of rest advantage days.
This begs the question: did the NFL do this on purpose? Certainly, a lot goes into scheduling. But it's interesting that the Jets -- now with Aaron Rodgers -- received such a big advantage. It behooves the NFL to have the Jets make the playoffs.
They are a massive draw and Aaron Rodgers is a huge star. The league knew Rodgers was going to be playing for the Jets before completing the schedule.
And, given all the resources that go into the NFL and how much talk there is about "fairness" in such a massively important league, how are the disparities so large?
The Jets get massive advantage, 49ers face tough draw thanks to 2023 NFL schedule
Take a look at the San Francisco 49ers. They play FOUR teams coming off bye weeks. Not only that, they don't even get their own bye week advantage.
The San Francisco 49ers drew the short straw on the NFL schedule in terms of rest advantage. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images)
San Francisco's bye week occurs in Week 9. In Week 10, they play Jacksonville. Guess who else has a Week 9 bye week? That's right: Jacksonville.
Furthermore, it's a home game for the Jags. So, the 49ers have to travel across the country following their bye week to play a team that gets to remain home for 13 days prior to the contest.
Seems a little unfair to me.
The Los Angeles Chargers also play three teams coming off byes, but the Chargers at least get their own bye-week advantage in return.
Interestingly, as well, is that last year's Super Bowl combatants -- the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles -- fell on the bad side of the draw. The Chiefs in particular.
Does any of it matter? Who knows.
But it's May, and we need some football to talk about.
Only 114 days until the season starts!