It's been a tumultuous week-plus for the New England Patriots and it looks like this whirlwind is going to continue as the club battles with positive COVID-19 tests. They first felt the wrath of the virus leading up to their Week 4 matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs after Cam Newton tested positive. That forced what was originally set to be last Sunday's matchup to be rescheduled to Monday. Now, the club is seeing its schedule get reshuffled once again.
Following that loss to Kansas City, Patriots star corner and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore tested positive for COVID-19. That forced New England to shut down their facility throughout the week and only reopen on Saturday. That exhale of back-to-back days of no new positive tests to allow the organization to head back into Gillette Stadium was shortlived, however, as Sunday morning brought another new positive test within the organization.
That has since forced the NFL to postpone New England's Week 5 contest with the Denver Broncos, a game that had already been pushed from Sunday to Monday. Both the Patriots and Broncos will now have their bye in Week 5 and will reportedly square off against one another next Sunday in Week 6, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. That's a simple tweak for New England as they had a Week 6 bye, but it does make things a bit tricky for Denver. The Broncos were originally set to face the Miami Dolphins in Week 6, but that game has now been pushed for later in the year.
All of this maneuvering and adjusting on the fly due to these positive tests does fit the mantra that head coach Bill Belichick has been preaching to his players this season and relayed to reports on Saturday.
"One thing that we've learned this year repeatedly has been we have to be ready to adjust and adapt to changes and modifications in the way we do things and in some cases decisions that really come down to a very short amount of time that we have to be ready to adjust to," he said. "We're certainly taking things day by day, probably hour by hour would be more accurate."
While this isn't an ideal situation, rescheduling this game to next Sunday does help New England out. Had the league still tried to cram this game into Week 5 on Monday, the Patriots would've been taking the field with just a walkthrough under their belt after going virtual all week.
Cam Newton's return on the horizon
One other advantage to this game getting pushed to Week 6 is that it opens the door even further for Cam Newton to return to action and not miss any more games following his positive COVID-19 test prior to Week 4. That was already in play when the game was being rescheduled to Monday as Newton -- who is reportedly asymptomatic -- would've just fit inside the 10-day window that is needed to be passed before discussing a potential return.
According to league protocols, an asymptomatic player can return after 10 days have passed since the initial positive test so long as it's coupled with two negative tests separated by 24 hours and approved by the team physician following a consultation with the ICS and the league's chief medical officer. Because this game was moved to Monday, Newton had a slight chance of squeaking by. That said, he wasn't able to practice with the team on Saturday so it may have been difficult for Bill Belichick to simply slot him back in under center without any game prep.
Now that this has been pushed an entire week, Newton is well passed the 10-day window and simply needs two negative tests separated by a day to get back on the field with his teammates and prepare for Denver. While this entire situation is less than ideal for the Patriots, Broncos and the NFL, having Newton possibly being ready to go when he otherwise would have missed this contest is a solid silver-lining for New England.
With all that said, if Newton isn't able to suit up for Week 6 for whatever reason and eyes a Week 7 return. CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora reported this week that New England would turn to Jarrett Stidham to start against the Broncos instead of Brian Hoyer, who got the nod against Kansas City.
While that may speak more to the poor performance by Hoyer in Week 4, it would be fascinating to see how Stidham responds with this promotion. He looked sharp coming in under duress for Hoyer, especially in his first drive of the night that ended with an impressive fade to N'Keal Harry in the back left corner of the end zone. Despite being a healthy scratch in each of New England's first three games prior to Newton's positive test, the Patriots have liked what they've seen from Stidham behind the scenes, with Josh McDaniels telling reporters back on Sept. 29 that he has "a lot of confidence in Jarrett" and has seen "a lot of growth" from week-to-week.
Naturally, it's easy to forget about Stidham in the wake of Newton showing out during his time starting under center, but the quarterback is only signed through this season. New England could always place the franchise tag on Newton for 2021, but Stidham's development should still be of note for the future of the Patriots. Getting him game reps while Newton battles COVID-19 could prove to be beneficial in seeing if there is a future for him under center.
Jason McCourty has strong words for NFL, NFLPA
Patriots corner Jason McCourty didn't mince words when conveying his displeasure with how the NFL and NFLPA have gone about pushing forward with games despite a number of positive tests within the organization and limited practice time. The veteran went as far as to say that "they don't care" and the team, as a whole, needs to take care of themselves.
"Between the players, the coaches, the administration, the staff, it is up to us to take care of one another, to make sure physically we are all set, make sure mentally because I think outside of here the people that don't have to walk in our building — whether it is the league office, whether it is the NFLPA — they don't care," he said, via WEEI.com. "We're trying to get games played and we're trying to get the season going. For them, it is not about our best interest, or our health and safety, it is about what can we make protocol-wise that sounds good, looks good and how can we go out there and play games.
"I think what I kind of learned personally throughout this situation is it is going to be up to us as individuals in this building to just really take care of one another."
McCourty was especially critical of the NFL and NFLPA's decision to allow the Patriots to get on a plane and head to Kansas City for their game against the Chiefs two days after Newton's positive test, knowing what we do about how this virus has an incubation period. His words would've taken on even more weight had the league tried to squeeze Patriots-Broncos into Week 5 after New England had essentially just a walkthrough to prepare.
Brady gets dose of new reality
Tom Brady was the butt of social media jokes on Thursday in the aftermath of Tampa Bay's loss to the Bears on Thursday night. The six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback seemingly made the rare mistake of not realizing that it was fourth down on the Bucs final drive of the game and turned the ball over on downs. While this was certainly a gaffe committed by Brady, he may not be the only guilty party.
Former NFL corner Darius Butler, who was drafted by the Patriots in the second round of the 2009 draft, theorizes that the play call on the fourth down try seems to suggest that the coaching staff was also under the assumption that it was third down as there were no players remotely close to the sticks.
While it's hard to figure out for certain if the Bucs simply had a systematic collapse on that call, this game did highlight one area that Brady downgraded in moving to Tampa Bay. While he certainly has seen an uptick in pass-catching talent around him, coaching was a bit of a downgrade as Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels have a much richer track record than head coach Bruce Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. That was not only on display there, but the near dozen penalties for over a hundred yards in that loss is also foreign in Foxborough under Belichick.
This may not matter too much in the grand scheme of things as the season plays out for Brady as he begins his Bucs tenure, but it is certainly notable as we continue to monitor the Patriots icon's new path down in Tampa.
In the immediate aftermath of Stephon Gilmore testing positive for COVID-19, Twitter was quick to point to a photo taken from the CBS broadcast of the All-Pro corner and Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes hugging as the game came to a close. Of course, that means Mahomes was is extreme close-contact with a player who later tested positive.
On Wednesday, the Chiefs quarterback noted that he wanted to show good sportsmanship, which is what led to his postgame embrace with Gilmore.
"You just have to trust in the protocols and the process in place. It was a little bit of a mental lapse," said Mahomes, via Nate Taylor of The Athletic.
Luckily for Kansas City, no player has tested positive for COVID-19 since practice squad quarterback Jordan Ta'amu did on the Saturday prior to that game against New England. That being said, the team did see a strength and conditioning coach reportedly test positive just prior to Week 5 when they host the Raiders.
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