Green Bay’s Early Bye Is A Blessing In Disguise

The early bye week was one of the first things that caught the attention of Green Bay Packers fans when the 2025 schedule was released. Green Bay will face the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football in Week 4, then head into their bye before returning to Lambeau Field to take on the Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals in Week 6.

Many believe the ideal time for an NFL team to get a bye week is in the middle of the season — around Week 9 or 10. An early bye can be tricky because it means your team uses up its break too soon and then has to play two-plus months straight with no rest. On the other hand, a late bye forces a team to grind through the entire first half of the season, all the way until late November or early December.

Still, this early bye might actually be a blessing in disguise for the Packers. And they’ve handled early byes well before.

The Packers are banged up on both sides of the ball. Jayden Reed was placed on Injured Reserve as he recovers from a broken collarbone and foot surgery. Meanwhile, Christian Watson is making good progress in his recovery from a torn ACL. While nothing is certain, we could see him after the bye, though most likely in a limited role.

Green Bay placed Jacob Monk and Brenton Cox Jr. on injury reserve, while Williams is on the PUP list. Travis Glover is also on injured reserve and will not play this year. MarShawn Lloyd is also still recovering from a hamstring injury he suffered against the Indianapolis Colts in the preseason.

Things didn’t get any easier for Green Bay after their 13-10 road loss to the Browns. Zach Tom re-injured his oblique on the very first snap, and Aaron Banks went down with a groin injury later in the game.

Per Packers Wire’s Zach Kruse, John Kuhn mentioned on the team’s radio broadcast that Devonte Wyatt suffered a knee injury late in the game. On top of that, Javon Bullard exited the game after suffering a scary head injury.

So, less than a month into the season, the Packers will enter Week 4 without two of their arguably top-four receivers. Their All-Pro-caliber right tackle could miss multiple weeks, and their $77 million left guard is dealing with a groin injury. On defense, their second-round safety might have a concussion, and their best interior defensive lineman just suffered a knee injury with an uncertain recovery timeline.

An early bye won’t mean much if injuries continue to pile up, but Green Bay’s schedule doesn’t get any easier after the break. They have four division games in a five-week span, plus a trip to Pittsburgh, always a tough place to play and historically a venue where the Packers haven’t had much success. The same goes for Denver.

Additionally, the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles visit Lambeau for a Monday Night Football showdown. Green Bay will need everyone healthy to beat Philly.

The Packers would probably prefer the bye to come a bit later, but it’s not like Matt LaFleur hasn’t handled early byes successfully. The last time Green Bay had a bye this early was in 2020, also in Week 5. That year, they won nine of their final 12 games on their way to the No. 1 seed.

Honestly, the only reason they didn’t win the Super Bowl was because David Bakhtiari suffered a devastating knee injury on New Year’s Eve. Otherwise, they would have taken it all. Disagree with me? You can argue with a wall.

The top two priorities for Green Bay this week are simple: win in Dallas and get out as healthy as possible for the bye. Hopefully, the Packers can use the extra rest to get more guys up to speed. Considering how banged up they are on both sides of the ball, that bye couldn’t be coming at a better time.