Bye Week Breakdown: How It Effects The Broncos
By Nate Winkler
Bye Week: History of Successful Teams
Jul 24, 2014; Dove Valley, CO, USA; Denver Broncos outside linebacker Von Miller (58) before the start of training camp at the Broncos training facility. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Before we get started, let’s throw that 1993 season out the window since there were two Bye Weeks and it would skew the numbers if we used them. Also, for the sake of this argument, we will take a look at the NFL’s version of the “Final Four”, or the teams that played in the NFC and AFC Championship games, and see if we can make any correlation to their success and when the placement of the Bye Week was.
I think we can all agree that reaching the Conference Championship qualifies as a successful season in most cases.
Here’s a look at the “Final Four” teams since 1990 and their regular season win totals along with the Bye Week.
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* More Super Bowl teams have had their Bye Weeks occur in the middle of the season, with seven of the last 23 Super Bowl Champions, or 30.4%, having their bye in either Week 7 or Week 8.
* Teams with byes in Week 7 represent 23 of the 92 teams that made it to the Conference Championship round, or 25%. Of those, nine made it to the Super Bowl and three of those brought home the Lombardi Trophy.