Now that the Week 4 contest between the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers has been postponed and will be pushed back to a later date, both teams are looking at their bye week coming sooner than they expected.
Originally, the Titans were looking at a Week 7 bye, while the Steelers had theirs in Week 8. However, after a fifth player and sixth personnel member of the Titans tested positive for COVID-19, it forced the NFL to cancel the game and reschedule it, which means both teams will have a bye in Week 4.
Thanks to the folks over at ESPN Stats & Info, here’s a look at how teams with a Week 4 bye ultimately fared.
The Steelers at Titans game has been postponed.
Since NFL went to a 17-week schedule in 1994:
– 138 teams had a bye week Week 4 or earlier
– 72 missed the playoffs
– 25 lost in Wild Card
– 22 lost in Div Playoffs
– 11 lost in Conf Champ
– 8 reached Super Bowl (3 won) pic.twitter.com/uucY2x0IKy— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 1, 2020
The last time Tennessee had a Week 4 bye was in 2015, when the team went 3-13 overall, including a 2-11 stretch after the bye. That was more the Titans being a bad team than anything else.
As for the Steelers, they last had a Week 4 bye in 2012. Pittsburgh went 8-8 that season and missed the playoffs, although the team did go 7-6 after the break.
Two teams had a bye in Week 4 last season: the New York Jets and the San Francisco 49ers.
The Jets finished with a 7-9 record, while the Niners went 13-3 and were tied for the best record in the NFC before making a run to Super Bowl LIV, where they eventually lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-20.
Clearly there is precedent for the Titans and Steelers to still have success despite a less-than ideal Week 4 bye.
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