On Sunday afternoon the Jacksonville Jaguars announced that there would be some changes made to their schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of having their bye week as they initially planned on Week 7, the team’s break has now been pushed back a week (to Week 8) with their meeting against the Los Angeles Chargers being moved to Week 7.
Simply put, this means the Jags will have to travel to Los Angeles after this week’s home game against the Detroit Lions and it also slots their bye week right in the middle of their schedule.
SCHEDULE UPDATE:
The @Jaguars’ Week 8 road game against the Los Angeles Chargers is moving to Week 7 (4:25 p.m. ET on CBS).
Jacksonville will now have its Bye Week during Week 8.
Upcoming dates:
Oct. 18 (W6): Home vs. DET
Oct. 25 (W7): Away at LAC
Nov. 1 (W8): Bye Week— Tad Dickman (@TDickman89) October 11, 2020
With teams like the Tennessee Titans, New England Patriots, and Minnesota Vikings having COVID-19 outbreaks recently, there has been a lot of schedule shuffling. As a result, the Jags won’t be alone with their schedule change as the Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills and others have done the same.
Some notable names to be sidelined with the coronavirus include Patriots stars Cam Newton and Stephon Gilmore. The Titans, who are a rival of the Jags, appear to be dealing with the worst case of COVID-19. They recently placed notables like cornerback Kristian Fulton and receiver Corey Davis on their Reserve/ COVID list, which is for players who’ve been exposed to a person/ people with COVID-19 or tested positive.
With issues popping up all over the league, Jags coach Doug Marrone told the media that he’s been emphasizing the organization’s protocols to keep the Jags’ facility safe last month.
“I think that this is a great opportunity right now for all of us in this league, coaches, players, support staff, to remind ourselves, with a lot of these openings that are going on, of our awareness of once we’re outside the building and what we’re doing,” Marrone said.
“Knowing that you test every single day, that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be exposed to it because those tests don’t come back until the evening, so that virus can incubate and go. I think it was a great opportunity. We took the beginning of our team meeting today and really re-emphasized that protocols that have been in place and hopefully something like this won’t happen again.”
This week is going to be an interesting one for the NFL as they will collectively take another crack at trying to go through the week without positive tests. With the league adding new protocols to keep the season on track and investigating for violations, maybe they can gain control of the current issues and have a successful season just as the NBA and others have.