Vikings wanted home game, not bye, after LondonThe first two times the Vikings played in London — against the Steelers in 2013 and the Browns in 2017 — they took their bye week right after the game. This year, they'll travel to London for a Week 4 matchup against the Saints, but
will be back home the following Sunday for a matchup with the Bears.
O'Connell said the Vikings lobbied the league for that schedule.
"Although [the bye] might help in the short term coming off a trip like that, playing 13 games in a row before possibly playing some [playoff] games on top of that, that can be really taxing on these guys," O'Connell said. "So what we wanted to try to do is get the bye a little bit later."
Instead, their bye falls in Week 7.
"We'll do a great job with our sports performance group, listening to the science on how we can make our guys feel great for [the London] game, but then obviously making sure that our players are feeling great for that following week's home game," O'Connell said.
https://www.startribune.com/vikings-note...600173031/