Rest Easy: The Teams Most Affected by Rest Days, or Lack Thereof, in 2022

Rest is one of the most important aspects of an athlete’s regimen, so whether they’re getting more or less of it makes a difference on game day and ultimately for fantasy performance. These teams have the best and worst lots when it comes to rest days in 2022…

Buffalo Bills
Rest is important, when it comes to being prepared physically and mentally for game days, and no other team gets more rest in comparison to their opponents in 2022 than the Bills. The Bills have the unique designation of playing 3 Thursday night games this season, which on its face seems like a disadvantage, but once you take a look at how many rest days the Bills get afterwards, and then how many days their opponents in those games get to rest, the Bills basically get two byes in addition to their regularly assigned one. Already armed with arguably the most dynamic offense in football, and one of the stoutest defenses, Buffalo is primed to take full advantage of this edge.

Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys don’t get quite the advantage the Bills do when it comes to total rest advantage, but Dallas still has a favorable schedule when it comes to rest. The Cowboys play 6 games this season in which their adversary has less than a week to prepare for them – Two of those games are in the vital weeks 16 and 17. This season, no other team has more than 4 such games. In addition, the Cowboys are the only team to play 5 games in which they’ll come into the matchup with more rest than their opponent. The Cowboys are also tied with the Commanders for lowest combined opponent win total percentage(.462) from the 2021 season.

Green Bay Packers
The Packers, hands down, are the team most adversely impacted by rest days in 2022. They face, you guessed it, the Bills and the Cowboys coming off of their respective byes, and the week after their own bye, Green Bay plays a Rams team that is coming off a Thursday night game, so the advantage the Packers may have might be mitigated. That being said, the Packers are 5-1 over the last 3 seasons when facing a team that has 3+ days of rest advantage, so maybe it’s all part of Matt LaFleur’s master plan. In any case, Green Bay got the short end of the stick.