Detroit Lions 2026 Schedule: Net Rest Differential
Does rest or home field matter much anymore?
Does net rest differential make a difference in health or performance? You would think it should, but it didn’t seem to help the Detroit Lions in 2025 when they had one of the best rest differentials in NFL history at +13 days.
Despite the extra rest, the Lions underperformed with a 9-8 record and were ravaged by injuries, especially in the secondary.
2025 Detroit Lions Net Rest Differential = +13
In 2026, the Lions net rest differential is basically a wash…
2026 Detroit Lions Net Rest Differential = +1
Why might rest differential and home field not matter anymore?
I’ve been following the NFL for decades now and it feels like extraneous advantages like rest or home-field have dramatically diminished over time.
I don’t think an extra day of rest for one team has ever made much of a difference. Nowadays, with significantly fewer overall practices and hardly any padded practices during the week, the rest advantage may be negligible.
With home-field, Vegas previously would give a +3 advantage, but that is down to around 1.5. According to data from Covers.com, home teams won 53.3% of the time in the 2025 season - a slight edge, but hardly dramatic.
What are the factors that have minimized the home-field advantage?
Plane travel is increasingly easy and comfortable.
Stadiums are increasingly becoming more sterile (in a nice way) and uniform.
Offenses have become extremely proficient with silent counts thus negating crowd noise effects. The crowd noise may actually hurt the defense more than the offense nowadays.
With the rise of online ticket resale, there is an increasingly high percentage of road fans at all games. I’ve certainly noticed a ton of Honolulu Blue in the stands at the road games I’ve been to over the past few seasons.
Maybe refs have gotten better at not letting the home crowd impact their calls. The increased usage of replay may be helping to smooth things out.
Let me know what other factors you think might play a role in negating the impact of rest and home-field advantage…
For maybe the main reason for the Lions’ disappointing 2025 season…