Typically I've always thought that a by week around now was ideal because if you look from the start of camp through week 17 this is really about the midpoint of a team's season. But for a team looking to play deep into January a late bye like they have- combined with hopefully a first round playoff bye- would be really, really beneficial to them. A lot of nagging bumps and bruises that can have some more time to heal. Very helpful for older players like Whitworth, Sullivan, Talib, Suh, etc.