Broncos-Patriots Postponed After Another Positive Test, Bye Week Affected
After the New England Patriots received news of another positive test on Sunday morning, the NFL shut down their team facility for the third time in 10 days. With such minimal practice time, it would have been a miracle if the NFL would have allowed the Denver Broncos' Week 5 game at the Patriots to go ahead.
It would have had a detrimental impact on player safety as well as the standard of the game. It isn’t just the Broncos’ season that is being affected now.
Per Adam Schefter on Twitter, the Broncos-Patriots game has now been scheduled for Week 6 on Sunday, though the time remains unclear. The Dolphins will also now take their bye week in Week 6 rather than in Week 11. The NFL plans for the Broncos-Dolphins game to take place in Week 11, with Broncos-Chargers moved to Week 8.
The Broncos and Patriots will take a bye week this week (Week 5), moving from Week 8 and from Week 6, respectively.
Broncos players have been very vocal on Twitter, emphasizing that they have had to practice all week with a late decision to have a bye now. Justin Simmons tweeted, “Injuries at an all-time high and our bye week was burned up with practices.”
The whole point of a bye week is to rest and allow injuries time to heal. The NFL stated that it was a ‘decision made to ensure the health and safety of players,’ but the Broncos have had to practice as if the game was going ahead and it would still have taken a toll on their bodies.
Later in the season, the Broncos could be at a competitive disadvantage. The Patriots will also be in the same situation but have only had the chance to practice virtually with repeated closures to their facility, meaning they will not have had the same injury toll.
There are some positives for the Broncos. With the bye week coming this week, much-needed players like Drew Lock, Noah Fant and A.J. Bouye should be working towards health and will have a much better chance to play.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, Cam Newton and Stephon Gilmore should be able to play too, while James White will be more integrated into whatever game plan the Patriots cook up after missing Weeks 2 and 3 for personal reasons.
Frankly, while Roger Goodell and the NFLPA deserve some credit for its handling of the COVID situation, there has also been some questionable decisions made as well. It seemed like the NFL was content to sit on its hands during the height of the pandemic, while other major sports leagues had to deal with severe disruption to their seasons.
The NFL's plans seemed rushed. Contact during the offseason at a time when it usually ramps up was curtailed. The preseason was cut to two games, then to one, and then to none at all, affecting the standard of play and leading to a unusually high amount of injuries.
Players on the margins at the back-end of the roster were affected to the greatest extent by not being able to prove themselves in the preseason games. Undrafted rookies weren’t able to move up the depth chart, like Phillip Lindsay was in 2018.
The extra practice squad spots were a hard-won compromise. There was no plan for delaying the season, there was no plan for Week 17 or 18 games, or delaying the Super Bowl. The NFL must surely now consider having those reserve weeks in Week 17 and 18.
It seems holding the Patriots-Chiefs game was more important for the NFL despite Newton’s positive test. In the immediate aftermath of the game, Gilmore had a positive test which had caused the Pats’ facility to be closed initially while more tests were undertaken.
Outbreaks will continue to happen, and the Patriots seem to have followed the required protocols, so it does not seem, thankfully, to be like the Tennessee situation.
The Titans have now had 24 positive cases since September 24, including 13 players and 11 staff members after another positive confirmed case for one of the staff members on Sunday morning. At this point, it remains to be seen whether the already-rescheduled game with the Buffalo Bills on 7pm on Tuesday evening will go ahead, but the Titans have been reckless in breaking protocols and need to be punished with fines and the loss of high draft picks.
It was poor optics for the NFL to initially move the Broncos-Patriots game to 3.05pm on Monday afternoon in the Mountain time zone; even on the Eastern time zone, many would still be at work and fighting traffic to get home.
Broncos fans should not have been penalized in that way, when the other games that have been rescheduled have happened in prime-time.
“I think our players have done great," head coach Vic Fangio said on Sunday. "They’ve been cooperative. It’s an inconvenience for everybody. Sometimes what we’re asking them to do or asking them what not to do seems trivial and seems unnecessary, but when you’re dealing with what we’re dealing with, you have to go to those extremes. Those guys have accepted it and moved on. Knock on wood, but up to this point, we’ve been free of the virus in this building."
While it was not feasible for the NFL to follow the ‘bubble approach’ of the NHL and the NBA for the regular season at least, it is past time for the NFL to consider regional bubbles for the post-season play. A two week ‘circuit breaker,’ after the culmination of the regular season – whenever that happens – strict ‘bubble’ testing, protocols and strong penalties for breaking them, should allow for a COVID-secure environment.
While it’s nice to have a semblance of normality in our Fall Sundays and sports is an important distraction, there is a human cost that should not be lost, and it’s important to keep perspective. Here’s hoping the NFL gets on top of the situation, and that all players, members of staff and their families are able to return to full health.
Follow James on Twitter @JamesC_MHH and @MileHighHuddle.
