The NFL has had to postpone multiple games this season due to positive coronavirus cases, but the league remains determined to play a full 16-game schedule. In order to do that, an extra week of games may need to be added at the end of the year.
After the NFL announced that Monday’s game between the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots has been postponed due to another positive COVID-19 test, speculation began growing that the NFL could eventually add a Week 18. The plan for the time being is to have any postponed games serve as a team’s bye week, but that will only work once. If a team needs a second game postponed, the schedule becomes more complicated.
As Judy Battista of NFL.com notes, even adding an 18th week might not solve all of the scheduling issues.
NFL clearly wants to use byes to move games early in the season. Don't want to move early season games to a hypothetical wk 18 if bye is available, b/c what happens if a team has to make up two games at end of season? Need to preserve that option as long as possible.
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) October 11, 2020
With Monday’s Broncos-Patriots game being moved to next week, the originally scheduled Week 6 game between Denver and the Miami Dolphins has also been moved. Here are the three changes that have been made thus far:
Here’s the plan, per sources, which is tied to Tennessee being able to play:
Broncos-Patriots next Sunday.
Week 8 (what was supposed to be Denver bye): Chargers at Broncos.
Week 11 (scheduled Miami bye) Dolphins at Broncos.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 11, 2020
The situation is fluid and will likely remain that way for the entire season. One Broncos player is angry over the way things unfolded this week and made it known on social media.
