NFL teams play once a week, so how much rest each team has had, and how far it traveled, can differ between the two sides of a game. These schedule spots are real, but small, and the market already knows the schedule.
Rest
- Thursday games come on short rest: most teams playing on Thursday played the Sunday before, three days earlier.
- Monday night teams have a day less than usual before their next Sunday game.
- Bye weeks give a team two weeks to rest and prepare. A team coming off its bye against one that played the week before has an edge in rest.
- Late in the season, a team that has clinched its playoff place may rest starters, which matters far more than any schedule spot.
Travel
- Time zones: a West Coast team playing an early Sunday kickoff in the East plays at what feels like 10 a.m. Long trips across the country can take something out of a team.
- International games (London, Germany and other venues) mean a long trip for both teams. Many teams take their bye the week after.
- Altitude: games in Denver are played a mile above sea level, which some visiting teams feel late in games.
- Short trips between nearby teams, or games where the visitors have a big following, can blunt home-field advantage.
Home field
Home teams have historically won more often than visitors, and spreads include a home-field allowance. That advantage has shrunk over the years and differs between stadiums. Do not assume a fixed number of points for it.
Using it
- Schedule spots are public and simple, so they are usually priced in. They matter most as a tiebreaker between two otherwise close views, not as a reason to bet on their own.
- Do not count the same thing twice. If a team is tired because of a Thursday game, that is one reason, not one for rest and another for the injuries it caused.
- Rest and travel matter more when they stack: a short week, a long trip and a cross-country body clock in the same game.
In Unitley
get_week_slate lists games and kickoff times between two dates, so you can check when each team last played. get_injury_report shows each team's current injury list.
Names set like this are Unitley’s tools: what your AI agent, or the analyst in the web app, calls to get these numbers. See the docs