Week 9 of the NFL season will have six teams on a bye, including the reigning Super Bowl champions and a team tied for the worst record in the league.
There will be six teams taking their bye week during Week 9 of the NFL season in the Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Chargers, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Of the six teams on their Week 9 bye, three of them are leaders of their respective divisions in the Vikings (NFC North), Patriots (AFC East) and Steelers (AFC North). The three remaining teams, the Browns (AFC North), Chargers (AFC West) and Bears (NFC North), are in last place in their respective divisions.
Even with a bye week, the Patriots (6-2) still take the top headlines as they made a trade on Monday night involving sending Jimmy Garoppolo to the 0-8 San Francisco 49ers for a second-round draft pick. The continued success of future Hall of Famer Tom Brady allows the Patriots to make these type of deals midway in the season. Brady has the Patriots in first place in total yards per game (411.1) and first in passing yards per game (302.1).
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Now for the first-place Steelers and Vikings, they too are 6-2 overall, with Minnesota entering this Week 9 bye on a four-game winning streak. The Steelers have won their past three games and are 4-1 in their past five games, as are the Vikings and Patriots.
Then there are the Bears, Chargers and Browns, and by the looks of things, this bye week couldn’t have come at a better time as all three lost this past Sunday, and the Browns are still looking for their first win of the season.
As for the Bears, they have been hit by many injuries to those who catch the football for them, and after finally benching Mike Glennon for rookie Mitchell Trubisky, there will continue to be growing pains and questions at quarterback.
Then there are the Chargers, who nobody in Los Angeles will even realize is on their bye week in looking at their attendance for their home games in the “City of Angels.”
Next: NFL QB Power Rankings 2017: Week 9
The six bye week teams are definitely headed in different directions going into Week 9. Once their break is over, these same six teams will all try to end up in the same spot, but for at least three of them, the reality of their season has them already thinking about how to make their franchise better for the future rather than the present.