With the New England Patriots’ Week 5 postponement against Denver, here’s why that creates even more uncertainty for New England moving forward.
The past few weeks have been hectic for the New England Patriots, and that continued leading into the Week 5 game this weekend.
A little over a week ago, concerns surrounding COVID-19 and an outbreak within the Patriots organization appeared when quarterback Cam Newton tested positive for the virus and therefore moved the Week 4 game against the Kansas City Chiefs from Sunday night to Monday evening in Kansas City.
After that game, the unfortunate health news continued for New England after a few other players — including defensive back Stephon Gilmore — tested positive for COVID-19 and resulted in the Week 5 game against the Denver Broncos being moved from Sunday to Monday once again.
The news didn’t stop there, however, and it’s a reason for concern for the Patriots both in the present and going into the rest of the regular season.
A day before the Week 5 matchup against Denver at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, New England reported an additional positive test on Sunday morning after having a few days of negative tests going into the Week 5 slate of games Sunday.
Patriots had one new positive test this morning, source tells ESPN. Their building is now shut down while further testing is conducted.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 11, 2020
As a result, the Patriots closed their team facilities and the NFL quickly pushed their Week 5 contest against the Broncos back to Week 6, resulting in both teams having an unexpected bye week this weekend.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Broncos and Patriots contest will indeed be played on Sunday of Week 6, adding some schedule shuffling for both teams the rest of the regular season.
The reason that this latest news causes even more uncertainty and concern for New England is the fact that the Patriots will now have to shuffle their schedule the rest of the season while also having a bye week earlier than expected in the year.
Another reason that this news is concerning is that New England now has even more questions surrounding its players and team personnel and the health and safety of the entire team moving forward.
The Patriots were already without Newton and Gilmore, to key pieces to the squad, for some time while they get cleared following positive COVID-19 results. Now, New England might have even more and will have to shut down team facilities once again until negative test results come in.
As we saw with the Tennessee Titans and the struggles they have had with containing the spread of the virus, New England could very well begin to go through the same thing and that could put more than just the upcoming game against Denver in question for the rest of the year.
This will no doubt be a topic of conversation for every NFL team for the rest of the 2020 campaign, but the Patriots are just the most recent team to be impacted by COVID-19 and that not only puts the game against the Broncos in question even with the postponement from Week 5 to Week 6, but it creates even more uncertainty moving forward as well.