ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos‘ game against the New England Patriots will be moved from Sunday to Monday at 5 p.m. ET, the NFL announced Thursday.
The game was originally scheduled for Sunday — a 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff — in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and the Broncos’ players were informed of the move to Monday after Thursday afternoon’s practice. The Patriots have not practiced and their facility was closed both Wednesday and Thursday after quarterback Cam Newton and cornerback Stephon Gilmore were moved to the team’s reserve/COVID-19 list.
While there were no new positive tests after Thursday morning’s testing, the Patriots (2-2) are taking additional precautions and will continue to prepare with virtual meetings and no practice again Friday, a team official told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The Broncos (1-3) will be the earlier game Monday, only a few hours before the Los Angeles Chargers and New Orleans Saints meet in the Monday night game at 8:15 p.m. ET. Denver television station 9News first reported the move to Monday.
Broncos defensive end Shelby Harris took issue with the scheduling change on Twitter Thursday.
“Why are we getting punished when we did nothing wrong,” Harris wrote. “Pats go on a bye next week and we are stuck on a short week playing the dolphins help it make sense.”
Earlier Thursday, Broncos coach Vic Fangio was asked if he had already started making contingency plans for the team if the game were moved to Monday.
“There’s not a lot of thought that has to go into it, you just adjust,” Fangio said. “We still would travel the day before and then just adjust our schedule the two or three days leading up to the game once we find out.
“… I think everybody wants the game to be played on time, as scheduled. We certainly do. But we understand with COVID that there’s going to be some improvising and adjusting that has to go on by everybody in the league at some point, and this would be our turn to be that adjustor. If they change it, we’ll adjust and be ready to go.”
Fangio was also asked Thursday if playing Monday would potentially help quarterback Drew Lock get back in the lineup. Lock has not played since suffering a right (throwing) shoulder injury in the Broncos’ Week 2 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Lock practiced, on a limited basis, for the first time this week, but Fangio has said he won’t play in a game until the Broncos are confident Lock could take a hit from a defender and not reinjure the shoulder.
“I don’t think 24 hours would make much of a difference in that case,” Fangio said.
Brett Rypien is still expected to start at quarterback for the Broncos.
