NFL Week 9: Which Teams Are On Bye?
Taking a look at which six teams will have their bye in NFL Week 9
Of the six teams who are on bye for NFL Week 9, three teams enter with a winning record, while the other three have seen better seasons in their franchise history. In the AFC teams, on bye are the first-place New England Patriots, the Houston Texans and the Cincinnati Bengals.
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The Patriots have the most wins in the NFL with a 7-1 record. And since Tom Brady returned in Week 5, they haven’t lost a game yet and have built a three-game lead over the second-place Buffalo Bills in the AFC East.
The Texans are the leaders of the AFC South with a 5-3 mark, holding on to a one-game lead in their division over the Tennessee Titans. The Bengals are second in the AFC North at 3-4-1 overall, trailing the Pittsburgh Steelers, who lead that division at 4-3. Cincinnati is coming off a tie to the Washington Redskins last Sunday.
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For the NFC, they also have three teams entering the Week 9 bye. Those teams are the Arizona Cardinals, Washington Redskins and the Chicago Bears. Of those three teams, only the Redskins have a winning record. Even still, they sit in fourth place in the NFC East at 4-3-1 overall.
The Redskins enter this bye week not only with the aforementioned tie with the Bengals last Sunday, but they have either lost or tied their past two games. In the month of October, Washington went 2-1-1, winning both of their games by a combined 10 points, while their loss and tie came by a combined three points.
Chicago (2-6) enters their bye week on a very high note. They had good play from Jay Cutler in his return from injury and they handed the Minnesota Vikings their second consecutive loss. The Bears defeated the Vikings, 20-10 in an upset, as Minnesota had just one loss before that game.
Maybe the most disappointing team of all this season is the Cardinals, as they were expected to compete for the NFC title, coming off a year where they were in the NFC Championship game in 2015. That hasn’t been the case for Arizona thus far this season with them being 3-4-1 overall, but they are in second place in a winnable NFC West.
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The Cardinals should be playing better than a four-loss, one-tie team. They know it, and so does everyone else. This past Sunday, they lost to the Carolina Panthers by a 30-20 score, and Carolina is another team this season that has played disappointing football midway through the season.
Time will tell if the Cardinals can overcome their slow start, but there are a few quality teams on their bye this weekend, giving the rest of the NFL a chance to get a little closer to them in the standings this weekend.