Saturday’s scheduled game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Cleveland Browns has been moved to Monday.
The game will be played at 5 p.m. ET, with the regularly scheduled Monday Night Football game between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears to be played at its usual time of 8:20 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Games scheduled for Sunday between Washington and Philadelphia, as well as Seattle at the Los Angeles Rams, have both been moved to Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.
As of Friday morning, the Browns have had a total of 24 players — 12 starters, including the punter — who either tested positive for COVID-19 this week or were still on the reserve/COVID-19 list from last week. The Rams have 25 players on the reserve/COVID-19 list, including receiver Odell Beckham Jr., cornerback Jalen Ramsey, outside linebacker Von Miller and four other starters. Los Angeles added 21 players to the list since Tuesday. The Seahawks also placed leading receiver Tyler Lockett and running back Alex Collins on the COVID list on Thursday. Washington has 21 players on the reserve/COVID-19 list including quarterback Taylor Heinicke and backup Kyle Allen.
The Raiders fought their scheduling change, believing the protocols over the summer were clear that outbreaks would result in forfeiture, a source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Eagles safety Rodney McLeod took to Twitter to vent about the schedule change.
So we have to suffer, and compromise our schedule because of another teams mistake. Make it make sense! Smh
— Rodney McLeod (@Rodney_McLeod4) December 17, 2021
The exponential rise of COVID-19 cases across the NFL has led to the league “getting pressure to move games,” a source told Schefter.
Information from ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry, Brady Henderson and John Keim was used in this report.