Ravens ask to not have a bye week after London game

The Ravens are set to face the Jacksonville Jaguars in London in Week 3 of the 2017 NFL season. However, according to Jamison Hensley of ESPN, the Ravens do not want a bye week following the game as some teams have had in the past.

Team president Dick Cass told ESPN that the team asked the NFL to not schedule a Week 4 bye week for the Ravens when the regular season schedule come out. The release of the schedule is expected to be next week.

Despite the extensive traveling that the Ravens will undertake in Week 3, the team wants to save its bye week until later in the season. The Ravens would much prefer to give its players a week to rest once they are starting to wear down. This way they can prepare for the final stretch of the season. If the bye week was to be in Week 4, then the team would have to play 13 games with no chance to rest in between.

According to Hensley, the Ravens have had a bye in Week 4 or earlier four different times: 1996, 2002, 2005 and 2008. However, on only one of those occasions have the Ravens gone on to make the playoffs: 2008.