One of the biggest faults of the Kansas City Chiefs' schedule last season, especially at first glance, was the distressing placement of the pivotal bye week. After one of the toughest stretches of games (on paper) to start the 2024 season, a very early bye in Week Six was not as optimal as some might think.
Fast forward to this year and Wednesday's hyped-up NFL schedule reveal, and everyone in Chiefs Kingdom immediately breathed a sigh of relief when seeing where the week off is: Week 10.
Andy Reid, who is 21-4 after a bye week (an NFL record), has to be happy knowing that the season won't be split 40/60 like last year, and the players should be just as happy knowing they won't have to play three months straight—even though it didn’t seem to slow them down last season on their way to a third-straight Super Bowl appearance.
This year's bye week, being placed smack dab in the middle of the 18-week season, is the first of many advantages for the Chiefs, especially coming after the always-exciting annual game against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in Week Nine.
The later, the better for bye weeks
It's hard to find irrefutable evidence that later bye weeks are more beneficial to teams, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that rest and relaxation are better for a playoff push when it's closer to the playoffs. Simply put, the Chiefs played a football game with their Week One starters for almost three months straight—and would have done so again if they hadn’t secured the first-round bye by Week 18’s game against Denver.
Luckily, the Chiefs’ misfortune of having the second-earliest bye week in the league last season has not been a common occurrence. Since 2020, the Chiefs have had a bye week in Week Ten or later in three of the five seasons, with only one (2023 vs. Philadelphia) ending in a loss. Now the Chiefs have an opportunity to add another victory with a trip to Denver coming after 13 days of rest.
Now, the Chiefs have only two non-divisional opponents with real gumption (Dallas and Houston) between the bye week and the playoffs, giving them even more reason to be happy that their bye takes place after October instead of during it. Compare that to last season, when they had five playoff squads in front of them between their two separate bye weeks.
Hopefully, those four non-divisional games and four divisional games after Kansas City’s Week Ten bye will show that Coach Reid, Patrick Mahomes, and the rest of the Chiefs are right where they were at that time last season, late into the playoff push. If not, that late bye week could be used to get players like Rashee Rice up to speed after a likely suspension and get the rest of the team back on track for a revenge tour through to Super Bowl LX in San Francisco.
Fun facts about the Chiefs and the bye
As stated earlier, Coach Reid has an NFL-record 21-4 mark as a head coach after a regular-season bye. What’s even more amazing is that if you add in his record after first-round bye weeks, it’s a staggering 27-4. That record will likely not be beaten anytime soon—maybe ever.
Mahomes also has some strong post-bye statistics. He’s 14-2 in games immediately following a bye (including postseason), with 4,076 passing yards, 26 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. It’s just another notch on Mahomes’ insane belt of trophies, hoping for another two bye weeks by the time the red-and-yellow confetti falls on him once again.
Add in the betting aspect, and it’s easy to think the Chiefs are a surefire lock after a bye week, but it’s not that simple. In fact, since Reid became head coach of Kansas City in 2013, they are 14-4 straight up but only 9-9 against the spread. So perhaps it’s not so cut and dry after a bye week...
