NFL 2017: Which teams are on bye in Week 6?
Week 6 will see four teams have a bye week in the NFL season, this being the second week of byes and the first with at least four teams not being in action.
Two teams from the AFC and two more for the NFC will have a bye in Week 6 of the NFL schedule with those teams being the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys and the Seattle Seahawks.
Buffalo enters the week in a three-way tie for first place — with the New England Patriots and New York Jets — in the AFC East with a 3-2 overall record. The Bengals are one game back in the AFC North with a 2-3 overall mark, winners of their past two games.
In the NFC, the Seahawks are tied for first place in the West as they are 3-2 overall (tied with the Arizona Cardinals), and the Cowboys are in third place in the East at 2-3 overall, losing their past two games.
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Of the four teams that were given a bye this week, the Cowboys needed one the most to hit the restart button and fix what ails them on both sides of the ball, as the offensive line isn’t playing up to their potential and their defense needs a lot of work, too. Maybe time to heal, regroup and figure out where some of their players stand though five games is exactly what the Cowboys need for Week 6, as their next game is against a winless San Francisco 49ers team.
Seattle, on the other hand, enters the Week 6 bye with a two-game winning streak, most recently defeating the Los Angeles Rams by a 16-10 score, a team they are tied with in the NFC West standings. They need time to heal some injuries too, and when they return, they’ll be facing the struggling New York Giants.
One of the more unique seasons thus far belongs to the Bengals. After two weeks, they fired offensive coordinator Ken Zampese, who coached them to a total of zero touchdowns in those games, and have since replaced him with Bill Lazor. Since the change, the offense of the Bengals has shown improvement, so a bye might just hurt the momentum they’ve been building as of late. When Cincinnati returns to the field, they’ll be facing the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The surprise team in first place this season through the first five games are the Bills and their 3-2 record, but they enter the bye week with a loss this past Sunday to the aforementioned Bengals by a 20-16 score. In Week 7, Buffalo will take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the bye week.
Next: 2017 NFL Picks, score predictions for Week 6
All four of these teams have had their ups and downs this season, but the team that needs this the most is the Cowboys, and the team it could hurt the most is the Bengals since they have finally built momentum they lacked the first three weeks.