When the NFL announced the schedule, the Cincinnati Bengals sitting with a Week 6 bye looked like a negative. 

That early bye week means 12 games in a row through next January to close the season. Five of those are away from home and one is overseas in Madrid, Spain, with kickoff set for a 9:30 a.m. ET start time. 

Seemed rough, but as the Bengals sit on that bye week right now…it’s actually pretty perfect timing. 

Just ask Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. 

"I think that was your gut reaction when you first saw (the schedule). When the bye was. Man, you kind of like it more towards Thanksgiving," Taylor said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. "But I do think just where our team is right now and the way that these last three games have gone down to the wire and guys playing through some stuff right now, it is a good time to get the bye and get our legs back underneath us, get some guys healthy, and go full force when we come back for Baltimore." …

Keep in mind that before this break, big names like Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins were frequents on the injury report already. Better to let those guys rest up than risk aggravating something even worse. 

Even Joe Burrow was dealing with back soreness early in the season and jammed a finger during the pre-bye win in Miami. 

We’ll see how this plays out once the Bengals go through that 12-game gauntlet and potentially into the playoffs. But now that it’s here, the timing of the bye week doesn’t  seem too bad, after all.