For a former player like Charlie Batch, he views the NFL schedule release in a different light. It isn’t just about the Week One opponent, the team’s number of primetime games, the on-paper “easy” and “hard” parts of the schedule. He’s not mapping out wins and losses. Instead, his viewpoint is about logistics. Are there holiday games? Tough travel weeks? And when is the bye?
Reacting to the Steelers’ schedule during a recent interview with Arthur Moats, Batch dislikes the Week Five bye.
“When I look at it, ideally you would like that bye week to be a little bit later,” Batch told Moats. “And those are things that I immediately look at.”
The Week Five off-week is the earliest bye a team can have. Pittsburgh is one of four teams with it, joining the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, and Atlanta Falcons. Conversely, the latest bye weeks occur in Week 14, with the New England Patriots, New York Giants, Carolina Panthers, and San Francisco 49ers having the league’s latest layoff.
It’s the Steelers’ earliest bye week since 2013 and comes for a similar reason. Though no longer an actual rule, it follows the team’s international game in Dublin, Ireland, against the Minnesota Vikings. Just as the team had their off week following their 2013 London game versus the Vikings.
Typically, the Steelers receive a bye somewhere in the middle of the season. Instead, they’ll have to finish the year playing 13 straight weeks of football in addition to any postseason action. It’s a tough slate for a team that wore down by the end of last year, though Pittsburgh fortunately doesn’t face the three games in 11 days they encountered in 2024.
Charlie Batch wonders if the early bye will have the team rethink their in-season plans.
“Do they train a little bit accordingly? Do they adjust the schedule? That’s ultimately what Coach Tomlin’s gonna have to do with that strength and conditioning department to make sure that his guys are ready for a brutal three quarters of the season.”
Long before the schedule release, Tomlin mused about finding ways to keep the team healthier. Going into his second year, head strength and conditioning coach Phil Matusz received poor marks from players in the NFLPA’s annual survey, and the team was mocked for having 35-year-old QB Russell Wilson injure himself pushing a sled during the pre-training camp conditioning test. All in all, Pittsburgh will need a smarter approach for better results.
