GREEN BAY, Wis. – One thing stood out among all others in what was a quirky schedule for the Green Bay Packers: the Week 4 bye.

No one – from coach Mike McCarthy to player after player – seemed overjoyed with it.

For McCarthy, it meant as little data as possible to help with the annual self-scout exercise he puts his coaching staff through at the break.

For the players, the realization that they would have an arduous 13-game stretch after the bye hit hard.

The Packers ranks 28th in total offense, so there is plenty to sort through with the early bye week. Brace Hemmelgarn/USA TODAY Sports

Yet here they are, three weeks into the regular season, and a week off doesn’t seem so bad. There’s plenty for McCarthy and Co. to fix, especially on offense. And with the Lambeau Field training room filled with enough banged-up players, especially on defense, that the earliest possible bye week proved timely.

“I never thought I would say this but for as different a schedule that we have, after the third game, it's a great time to have the bye, because we need it,” McCarthy said before he dismissed his team for the week on Monday. “That's where we are.”

Dating to the preseason, the Packers had four straight on the road – the final two preseason games and the first two of the regular season – followed by Sunday’s home opener against the Lions. After the bye, they have three more at home before a stretch of four out of five on the road, including three straight from Nov. 13-28.

The only break comes following the Thursday night game against the Bears on Oct. 20; they’ll have 10 days before their next game, at Atlanta.

“I’m not a big fan of it,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said of the early bye. “But it actually comes at a good time for us based on the way our team is health-wise The tough part is you go on a 13-game stretch after this. We do have a mini-bye after the Thursday night Chicago game, but health is a premium. We’ve seen it every single year. It’s the teams that are playing the hottest but also that are healthy at the end of the year that go on a run.”

McCarthy said there’s a good chance four of the injured defensive players who missed the Week 3 win over the Lions – Clay Matthews (ankle, hamstring), Letroy Guion (knee), Datone Jones (knee) and Morgan Burnett (groin) – could play against the Giants a week from Sunday.

It’s the second time in four years the Packers were given the Week 4 bye. In 2013, they were reeling after a 1-2 start and needed it to regroup. They won four straight following the bye until Rodgers broke his collarbone.

“I’m not going to sit here and tell you I love the Week 4 bye; I don’t,” Packers right tackle Bryan Bulaga said. “But it’s the way the schedule came out. We have some other things built into the season – the Thursday night game, which is like a mini-bye. You just have to deal with what the schedule is and work off that. Coach McCarthy’s great with making sure guys are staying fresh and taking care of our bodies. I think that’s going to be the biggest thing going forward. I know some guys are banged up, so some guys it probably is good timing to get a week off, get healthy, get rested.

“It’s a love-hate thing with the bye week, I think.”

Medical issues aside, McCarthy and his offensive staff must come up with a remedy for an offense that ranks an unfathomable 28th overall and 29th in passing yards even with Rodgers at the helm for every single snap.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” McCarthy said. “I went through a quick overview with the whole team, where I felt we are after three games, and we need to detail our work. We have so much more that we can do and so much more we’re going to do. It’s just staying focused and keeping everybody in the room – the players, the coaches, support staff – doing everything they need to do to get better. But, yes, I’ve never seen a team not excited when the bye week comes. It’s early, it’s different, but I think it’s obvious we need it. So this is a good time for us to have this bye week.”