Once again, the NFL has to postpone a game due to positive COVID-19 testing from players. The postponement of Monday’s game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos (which had already been pushed back) follows last week’s postponement of the Patriots-Chiefs game, which caused a bunch of changes to CBS’ broadcast schedule as the game switched out of the coveted afternoon primetime slot. It also follows the postponement of the Tennessee Titans – Pittsburgh Steelers game last week and could also include a further postponement of this Tuesday’s game between the Titans and Buffalo Bills if the Titans continue to have positive test results.
All of this is to say that the NFL schedule makers are getting a true test of their ability to fit every scheduled game into a 17-week schedule and they’re starting to run out of space. But until more games get postponed or potentially canceled, the league and it’s TV partners have shifted things around as the ripple effects of this week’s postponements trickle out across the season.
NFL schedule changes: pic.twitter.com/MzqhYgJ8n4
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 11, 2020
Full schedule changes from the NFL including moves for eight teams in light of the COVID-19 change of #Patriots–#Broncos: pic.twitter.com/op5JV0RdlM
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) October 11, 2020
The NFL announced the following updates to it’s 2020 weekly schedule in light of everything that’s happened so far, which include:
The game between the Broncos and Patriots originally scheduled for this week will now be played next week (Week 6) on Sunday, October 18 at 1:00 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on CBS.
The Week 6 game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs in Buffalo will be moved from Thursday, October 15 to Monday, October 19 at 5:00 p.m. ER and will be available on FOX, NFL Network, and Amazon.
The Week 10 game between the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins is being shuffled up to Week 6 and will be played next Sunday at 4:05 p.m. ET on CBS.
Meanwhile, the Jets game against the LA Chargers, originally set for Week 6, is now moving to Week 11 and will be played Sunday, November 22 at 4:05 p.m. on CBS.
The ripples continue for the Chargers as their home game against the Jacksonville Jaguars that was set for Week 8 is moving up to Week 7 and will be played on Sunday, October 25 at 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS. The Chargers’ game against the Broncos that was scheduled for Week 11 moves up to Week 8 on Sunday, November 1 at 4:05 p.m. on CBS while their Week 7 game at the Miami Dolphins moves from Week 7 to Week 10 on Sunday, November 15 at 4:05 p.m. ET on CBS.
Finally, the Dolphins’ game against the Broncos set for next week is now pushed to Week 11 when it’ll be played (presumably that Sunday) at 4:05 p.m. ET on CBS.
There are also a bunch of bye week changes for the teams involved. The Broncos and Patriots are now in their official bye week due to the postponement, the Chargers’ bye week is now next week, the Dolphins’ bye week is now Week 7, the Jaguars’ bye week is now Week 8, and the Jets’ bye week moves up to Week 10.
Adjust your TV schedules accordingly.
Of course, all of these changes presume that we won’t have any further game postponements or positive tests, which seems like a very dumb assumption to make as COVID number rise once more across the country and more NFL teams are testing positive than in previous weeks. So perhaps don’t carve all of these dates down in stone just yet.