4 reasons why Steelers early bye week will hurt their Super Bowl chances this year
By Tommy Jaggi
No rest for injured Steelers
Having a Week 8 bye would have been ideal for Pittsburgh. It would have come right in the middle of the season and between facing the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys – perhaps the two most difficult games on their schedule this year. Unfortunately, that bye week is probably going to be gone.
In order to fit the Titans game back in Pittsburgh’s schedule somewhere along the way, the Steelers will likely have to play 13 straight games without a break heading into the playoffs.
We have seen in the past how important bye weeks can before players recuperate from nagging injuries in the middle of the season, but Pittsburgh will now be one of two NFL teams (the other being the Titans) who will not have that privilege in 2020. As a result, it’s possible that Pittsburgh will enter the playoffs fatigued and more banged up than the opponents they will be facing.
This isn’t to say that they are guaranteed to get knocked out early, but I like our chances better if we have a team with fresh legs going into the most difficult games of the year. Assuming they make it into the playoffs, it’s unlikely they will have all of their starters after a 13-game stretch without a break. If they somehow make it to the Super Bowl, we are looking at 16 games with no break in between.