The difficulty of an NFL schedule is not only determined by who the Colts play and whether it’s a home or road game. But over the course of a grueling NFL season, rest – or a lack of it – is another factor that can make things more or less difficult.
Unfortunately for the Colts, when it comes to any sort of rest advantages built into their 2024 schedule, they rank among the worst in football in that regard.
Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis recently ranked every team based on their net rest advantages–or, in the Colts’ case, disadvantages. This is calculated by looking at how many rest days the Colts have going into each game compared to their opponents.
So, for example, if the Colts play on Sunday in Week 2 and their Week 3 opponent plays on Monday Night in Week 2, the Colts have the rest advantage by one day (+1), with their opponent having only six days between games while Indianapolis has seven.
Compared to their opponents this upcoming season, the Colts will be at a rest disadvantage of 17 days. Minus-17 is tied for the second-worst discrepancy with Denver, and only ahead of San Francisco at minus-21.
On the other side of the spectrum is Baltimore, who has the best net rest advantage of plus-16. Also near the top of the list are Houston at plus-seven and Tennessee at plus-six, which rank as the sixth and seventh-best, respectively. Jacksonville is at plus-four.
What really brings the Colts’ net rest advantage down is that there is one instance where their opponent has a full seven days of rest coming off a bye week and another where the opponent has six days of additional rest. On only one occasion this season do the Colts have the rest advantage, and it’s by just one day.
Based on the projected win totals for each of the Colts’ 2024 opponents, Sharp Football also calculates that Indianapolis has the seventh-easiest schedule on paper. However, the lack of rest compared to their opponents will add a challenging element to the season.
