The Green Bay Packers’ opponents will largely dictate the difficulty of their schedule, but there are other factors in play that contribute to making things more or less challenging than what they already are.
This can include any long home or road stretches, facing top-tier opponents in consecutive weeks, and perhaps most notably, the amount of travel that takes place and the rest opportunities baked into the schedule.
The NFL season is a long one, with injuries often piling up for many teams. When the bye week falls or whether a team has the rest advantage over their opponent are elements that matter over the course of the season. And for the Packers, the schedule shapes up fairly well in that regard.
Although the Packers do begin their season flying to Brazil, it is a Friday night game, which gives them two additional days of rest–not to mention that they’ll get to be at home for their Week 2 matchup with the Indianapolis Colts.
In terms of travel, the Packers will log the 10th-most air miles this season with 22,209. However, when we take into account that their round-trip to Brazil and back accounts for over 10,000 of those miles, the rest of the schedule from a travel perspective doesn’t shape up so bad.
The bye week comes at what should be a favorable time for the Packers, right in the middle of the season during Week 10. Where the bye week has fallen in recent seasons hasn’t been all that kind to Green Bay, with their bye week last season being very early in Week 6, while in 2021 and in 2022, it was during Weeks 13 and 14, respectively.
“I think we’re excited about that,” Matt LaFleur said about the bye week via Packers.com. “You’re never quite sure when the right time for a bye, although it does seem like it maps out pretty favorably for us.”
The Packers will also have the rest advantage over their opponent more times than they will be at a disadvantage. Andy Herman of the Pack-A-Day podcast did the math, and on four occasions, the Packers will have more rest than their opponents compared to only two instances where they won’t
Packers + 2 days vs. Colts (after Packers play in Brazil)
Packers + 7 days vs. Bears (after Packers come off bye week)
Packers +3 days vs. Seattle (after Packers play on TNF)
Packers -3 days vs. Bears (after Bears play on TNF)
Packers -1 day vs. Vikings in Week 17 (after Packers play on MNF)
In total, that’s an advantage of eight additional rest days that the Packers will have compared to their opponents.
This year, the NFC has nine home games compared to just eight on the road. This plays a role in the Packers having only one instance where they are away from Lambeau Field for consecutive weeks, playing at Detroit in Week 14 and then at Seattle in Week 15.
But the Detroit game comes on a Thursday night, which as noted above, gives the Packers additional rest time before traveling to Seattle.
As LaFleur has pointed out previously, other teams don’t care if you’re dealing with injuries, nor do they care if you’re coming off a short week and have less time to prepare. At the end of the day, you either perform on Sundays or you don’t.
However, having said that, in what is a very physical and marathon-like NFL season, additional rest and less travel does matter.
