How the NFL schedule makers made 49ers schedule one of NFL’s hardest
The 49ers’ 2023 schedule was never going to be easy. They’re facing a couple of good divisions with the NFC East and the AFC North, and they’ll play first-place finishers from last year in the AFC South, NFC South and NFC North. However, a breakdown from Warren Sharp indicates the league’s schedule makers made an already rough 17-game slate even harder for San Francisco.
At first glance things aren’t so bad for the 49ers despite needing to make four trips to the East Coast and holding five primetime slots to start the year. Their East Coast trips are mostly manageable and there aren’t any long, grueling road trips that require a week-long stay on that side of the country.
Sharp’s excellent deep dive into the schedule shows a sizable disadvantage for San Francisco. They have an NFL-worst rest disadvantage with their opponents totaling 20 more days of rest over the course of the season. The Jets, Bears and Commanders all enjoy a league-best 12 more days of rest than their opponents over the course of the year.
The key culprit in the 49ers’ sizable rest disadvantage is the four teams they play that are coming off bye weeks. Cleveland (Week 6), Cincinnati (Week 8), Jacksonville (Week 10) and Arizona (Week 15) all have byes before playing San Francisco.
To make matters worse, the 49ers’ bye which would gain them a large rest advantage comes in Week 9 — the same week Jacksonville is off before hosting the 49ers in Week 10.
San Francisco will also be traveling to Cleveland for Week 6, and while they host Cincinnati in Week 8, that game is preceded by a Monday night showdown in Minnesota so the 49ers will come off a short week before hosting one of the AFC’s best teams.
The only weeks the 49ers will hold an advantage are in Week 4 vs. the Cardinals when they have extra days off from their Thursday night game in Week 4 vs. the Giants. They’ll have the same advantage when they visit the Eagles in Week 13 after playing on Thanksgiving.
Those two three-day advantages are the only time the 49ers will have more rest than an opponent all season, and those extra days off matter a ton in a league where health is paramount to winning championships.
Winning a Super Bowl is never easy, and this year’s slate of opponents was always going to make things tougher on the 49ers as they try to get over the hump in the NFC. The schedule makes the mountain steeper though, and their ability to withstand the rigors of an 18-week season where they’ll so often be behind the curve rest-wise will determine just how far they can go in 2023.
