49ers TE George Kittle again campaigns for two bye weeks
San Francisco 49ers star tight end George Kittle isn’t done campaigning for the NFL to add a second bye week now that teams play 17 regular-season games each campaign.
“Seventeen football games is really difficult,” Kittle explained during the “Washed Up Walkons” podcast, per David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone. “Staying healthy is difficult in the NFL. It’s honestly a lot of luck.”
Kittle continued:
“It doesn’t matter how much workout, how you workout in the offseason, it doesn’t matter how great of a camp practice you have, doesn’t matter how consistent you are. Someone can just fall on you, and it can either ruin your season, or it can ruin your next couple of weeks, and it can prohibit you from being at your best.”
Back in the fall of 2021, then-Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting quarterback Tom Brady became probably the most noteworthy player to openly speak out against the NFL expanding the regular season to 17 games per team. The league likely won’t go back to 16 contests per club, so Kittle told comedian and actor Kevin Hart in June 2022 that he was advocating for two bye weeks to help players deal with the “huge physical toll” of 17-game campaigns.
Kittle said on “Washed Up Walkons” that expanding to 19 weeks with two byes could benefit everyone involved.
“It’s another week of football, and the players are healthier, and the players that you want to see every Sunday, who are getting you all these fantasy points, they’re going to be out on the field and have a higher likelihood of being out there because their bodies are going to be healthier,” Kittle remarked. “So it just makes sense to me. Just start to go another week. The Super Bowl is on Valentine’s Day, as it is, so I think I’d be okay with one more bye week. Just have one early in the season, have one late in the season, and let guys be healthy.”
Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said this past December he is “a big proponent” of the NFL expanding to an 18-game regular season with “two or three preseason games” sooner than later.
Assuming a 19th regular-season game is added to the schedule by 2030, the league presumably will embrace a 19-game/21-week format that includes Kittle’s desired two byes.
