The week following the Steelers’ byes since Mike Tomlin took over in Pittsburgh in 2007 has produced favorable results.
In Tomlin’s first season, the Steelers had a Week 6 bye and lost to the Denver Broncos, but only lost three more post-bye week games after.
The Steelers are 9-4 in the week following a bye since ’07 with losses to Denver, the New Orleans Saints, Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens.
Ironically, the last time the Steelers had a Week 4 (scheduled) bye was in 2012, and the following week they defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 16-14.
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Bye weeks were first introduced in 1960 — since the NFL had an odd number of teams (13), each team was given a bye. Any year the league had an uneven number of teams (1966, 1967), a bye would be instituted.
In 1990, bye weeks became permanent. The league actually toyed with two bye weeks in 1993 but it failed miserably and reverted in the 1994 season.
Pittsburgh has only had a bye four times since 1990. Since then, they’ve made the playoffs twice — once in 1996 and again in 2005 when they were Super Bowl champions.
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