Teams coming off the bye have stumbled and tripped to a shaky 3-9 mark this season, poor enough to put NFL Network's Warren Sapp on high alert.
QBÂ Killa told NFL GameDay on Sunday that teams are playing soft because of the new rules, which enforce that players take four days off during the bye -- too much luxury, too much space.
"An unused sword doesn't stay sharpened now, it starts to rust,"Â Sapp said. "When guys sit around watching sitcoms instead of working out, they're not going to come out of the bye week strong."
Maybe so, but Fred "Action" Jackson doesn't agree. The Bills running back visited the "Dave Dameshek Football Program" this week and told NFL.com's Adam Rank (after Rank hijacked the show, rebranding it "The Adam Rank Gridiron Podcast For Kids") that Sapp's riff lacks legs.
"You know, I don't think (the bye) hurts at all," Jackson said. "I think this can be a very long season and to have four days off from it, you know, it allows the body to kind of recuperate. It allows you to recuperate mentally. I think a lot of guys like it. But at the same time, I can see where (Sapp's) coming from because when you're in football you want to be focused on football.
"From what I've seen at practice ... everybody's come back and are right back into it."Â
Jackson doesn't foresee a sleepy performance against the Redskins on Sunday, and we don't foresee Dameshek allowing Rank to ambush the proceedings like this again.
