It was going to be hard for the 49ers to surpass their league-worst minus-20 rest differential from last season. Rest differential is the difference between a team’s number of days off between games and their opponent’s number of days off between games. In 2023 San Francisco’s minus-20 rest differential was the league’s worst and the sixth-worst since 2002, according to ESPN’s Brian Burke. Alas, their 2024 schedule managed to be worse in that regard.
In 2024 the 49ers will again have the worst rest differential in the league, logging a whopping minus-22, eclipsing last year’s mark and landing as the third-worst rest differential since 2002. Only the 2012 Eagles and the 2017 Giants had a worse differential. Philadelphia that year finished 4-12, while the 2017 Giants stumbled to a 3-13 record.
Rest difference vs opponents. Tough scene for SF. pic.twitter.com/K7kVXtHQV0
— Brian Burke (@bburkeESPN) May 16, 2024
A key factor in the 49ers’ poor rest differential is that they play four teams coming off bye weeks. Also, the 49ers have a Thursday game in Week 6 vs. the Seahawks. They’d typically gain a rest advantage on the following opponent, but in this case that gets nullified by the Chiefs having their bye in Week 6. San Francisco will actually have a rest disadvantage despite getting extra time off before Week 7.
These are the breaks of the schedule sometimes, though. Last year San Francisco overcame the minus-20 rest differential to secure the NFC’s No. 1 seed en route to a Super Bowl trip. This year the path back to the No. 1 seed was always going to be steep – the minus-22 rest differential is just another hurdle they’ll need to clear.
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