I think there should be a new rule where every starter gets as "bye" week that can be applied anywhere throughout the season. That is, every starter gets a week off without penalty or time limit.
That's 44 times a season where a player is not sick or injured but unavailable. he's on "rest protocol"
The way I would do it is four players each week from week #3 to #10, that's 32 of the 44 starters, then three players from week #11 to week #14, that's the other 12 starters.
Seventeen games is a very long regular season. Any team that goes to the Super Bowl will have played at least 20 games that season. season