Saints won't see their bye week until Week 14

Well, this is unusual. The New Orleans Saints will have to play 13 games before they get a breather in their Week 14 bye, as first reported by NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill, including an early-season road trip to London with a quick turnaround back to New Orleans the following week.

First-year Saints head coach Dennis Allen learned a lot at Sean Payton’s elbow the last six years, but this is a new challenge. The Saints have had their bye in Weeks 6, 6, 9, 6, 5, and 5 dating back to Allen’s first year on the job as defensive coordinator (having taken over for Rob Ryan midway through the 2015 season).

It was already tough managing players’ workloads before the NFL schedule expanded to 17 regular season games. This adds another hurdle for Allen and his coaching staff to overcome in ensuring players are getting enough snaps to help the team without burning themselves out. It’s a long season, and for a team with playoff aspirations like New Orleans, navigating it with a rare late bye week could be difficult.