Goodbye to Bye Week: Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs Embraced Downtime for Super Bowl Rematch

No one is better at handling an NFL bye week than Andy Reid and Nick Sirianni tapped into the one-time Eagles coach early in his tenure.

PHILADELPHIA - It’s a small sample size, but Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is a perfect 2-0 in the regular season when coming off his team’s bye week, a sample size that isn’t exactly statistically significant just yet.

It doesn’t get more significant than Sirianni’s counterpart in Monday’s Super Bowl LVII rematch with the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead, however.

Andy Reid is not only one of the best coaches in NFL history, but the one-time Eagles mentor is also the undisputed king of the bye week. His team is also coming off their mandated break.

It all started in Philadelphia for Reid. During his 14 seasons with the Eagles, when the future Hall of Fame mentor essentially laid the foundation for how the franchise does business to this day, Reid was a mind-numbing 13-1 with extra time to prepare in the regular season.

The only loss was in Reid’s last season as the Eagles coach to a then 6-0 Atlanta Falcons team in 2012 when the shelf life had expired and Philadelphia was fighting through a 4-12 disaster, still the worst season Reid has ever had as a head coach in the NFL.

Things haven’t changed much in the Midwest for Reid. 

The veteran coach took over a two-win team coming into the 2013 season and did lose his first opportunity coming out of the bye with the Chiefs but has since rattled off eight of nine, meaning Reid is 21-3 with extra time to prepare as a head coach in the regular season.

When things are ramped up in the postseason against the best competition, Reid has still been ultra-successful with extra time: 3-1 with the Eagles and 6-2 with the Chiefs which includes the Super Bowl LVII win over Philadelphia and is a .750 winning percentage against the best competition the league has to offer.

Is there a secret?

What's the secret to Andy Reid's success with extra time to prepare? / USA Today

“I would say [the bye week] is about the coaches more than the players,” a former Reid assistant told SI.com’s Eagles Today. “He wants the players to get away, to recharge and clear their minds a little bit but we did get a head start on game-planning for the next opponent and even a little bit past the next one.

“Self-scout is also continuous so there’s some of that but I think that’s a little overblown. Maybe you have a little more of a chance to implement a change or two or get a little more creative.”

These days, the collective bargaining agreement mandates four consecutive days off for the players during the bye week that must include the weekend.

The timing around that typically has to do with how a team is playing.

For Sirianni’s Eagles, who are an NFL-best 8-1 at their break, it would have been very hard to drag the players in for some extra work after a big division win over the Dallas Cowboys. The return back was pushed off by the Week 11 game being on Monday night.

It only returns to business as usual for the Eagles on Thursday.

For the coaches, though, there should be a high standard.

“There’s no excuse for not having one of the better plans for the year,” the former assistant said.

Making that plan come to life is the trick, though.

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Sirianni asked Reid what his secret was after his rookie season, and Reid was gracious enough to offer some insight.

The biggest takeaway for Sirianni was embracing the idea of downtime from the grind for not only his players but his coaches as well.

A mental and physical break for teams under the pressure of Super Bowl-or-bust expectations seems like the prudent path.