It also means 14 straight weeks to let the injury flare up again and no rest period to give himself a chance to heal.
Teams with early byes rarely do well as the season goes on. I'm sure you knew this, so I'm kinda curious as to why you asked. Now, part of my comment was pure comedy (something else I'm sure you knew - so, again I don't understand why you're posing the question) obviously - to assume an NFC South team would be in the SB again. Just because an early bye occurs conveniently when you have ONE major player out doesn't facilitate the rest of the season going well. Let's suppose instead of just lil' ol' Stephen Davis, you start getting a bunch of role players banged up towards the end without a mid-season or late season bye? No mid-to-late season recharge period.
Want an example of early byes hurting (even when you have injured people early in the season to take advantage of the bye with) a team? Look no further than your favorite team's 2003 season (Bucs
). Early byes tend to not bode well at all.
I could say (and have said): "Bucs are 0-2? Pfft! They're not making the Super Bowl." But of course that's not true. Going 14-2,13-3, 12-4, 11-5, or 10-6 would do a lot to reinforce the Bucs' chances. History says only 3 0-2 teams made it to the Super Bowl, history also says teams with early byes stand less chance to make the playoffs much less the Super Bowl. I'm just playing on history, chief.
Once again, BLATANT joke.