NFL moves Seahawks-Cardinals to Sunday night in case Buccaneers-Raiders gets postponed due to COVID-19
There’s been a late change to the NFL’s Week 7 schedule.
The Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals will now be NBC’s Sunday Night Football game while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ trip to the Las Vegas Raiders has been moved to 4:05 p.m. ET on Fox.
The move to take the Bucs and Raiders out of primetime was made because the entire Raiders offensive line was sent home on Wednesday after OT Trent Brown was put on the COVID-19/Reserve list. The NFL said in its Thursday afternoon statement that it expects that game to be played on Sunday but schedule change ensures that NBC has a game for Sunday night.
That expectation may be more like a hope. Per reports, the entire Raiders offensive line and safety Jonathan Abram have all gone on the COVID-19 list and must quarantine through at least Saturday.
Confirmed: #Raiders OL and Abram all going on COVID-19 list as they have been deemed HIGH RISK contacts, so they are now ‘quarantined’ for 5 days plus last day of contact, which was Monday. Which means they could conceivably be cleared Sunday morning via a POC test but (more)...
— Paul Gutierrez (@PGutierrezESPN) October 22, 2020
...also means less time to prep for #Buccaneers game, which was moved up from 5 pm to 1 pm PT. Plus, Raiders only have 5 other O-linemen on 53-man roster and two others on practice squad. But teams have to suit up at least 8 OL on gamedays. And simply (more)...
— Paul Gutierrez (@PGutierrezESPN) October 22, 2020
...signing a street free agent doesn’t work either because they would then have to go through 6-day entry protocol. Moving game back to Monday or Tuesday seems most likely at this juncture.
— Paul Gutierrez (@PGutierrezESPN) October 22, 2020
NBC is likely disappointed that it won’t be showing Tom Brady for the first time as a member of the Buccaneers. That would have probably been a huge ratings draw alongside Game 5 of the World Series. But simply having a game is a bigger priority. NBC would have been left without a game had the NFL been forced to postpone the Bucs-Raiders game on Friday or Saturday because the Raiders didn’t have enough players available.
And hey, maybe having the 5-0 Seahawks for the third time this season will give NBC another thriller. The Seahawks’ two Sunday night games so far this season have been two of the best games of the season.
Seattle beat New England 35-30 in Week 2 after stopping Cam Newton at the goal line as time expired. In Week 5, the Seahawks came back to beat the Minnesota Vikings 27-26 when D.K. Metcalf caught a TD from Russell Wilson with 15 seconds left.
The game will also be the first Sunday night game for Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray. The No. 1 pick in the 2019 NFL draft has thrown for 1,487 yards and 10 touchdowns so far in 2020 and has also rushed for 370 yards and six scores. The Cardinals, 4-2, demolished the Dallas Cowboys 38-10 on Monday Night Football in Week 6.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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