The Situation for Week 4
I hoped I would never have to write this article, but it’s finally time. After three weeks of relative calm, the COVID-19 pandemic has now disrupted the NFL season. Last week, the Titans had multiple players and personnel test positive for COVID-19 after their game against the Vikings. Luckily, as of this moment, no Vikings have tested positive, meaning that their season should proceed as scheduled.
However, the Titans have continued to have more positive tests roll in throughout this week. Initially, the NFL planned to postpone the Titans-Steelers contest from Sunday to Monday or even Tuesday. But, as the positive tests piled up, they had to revise that plan and move the game out of Week 4.
Therefore, the Titans and Steelers will have an unscheduled bye week for Week 4. On most fantasy platforms, this week represents a typical bye week. Fantasy owners cannot place Titans or Steelers’ players on IR, so you’ll have to replace guys like Derrick Henry, James Conner, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Ryan Tannehill, and Ben Roethlisberger this week.
Rescheduling the Game
Hopefully, the NFL provides some clarity on their plan to move this game later on into the season. As of now, the most likely scenario is as follows, according to Adam Schefter. The Titans and Steelers will play in Week 7, in the Titans’ originally scheduled bye week. Then, the Steelers and Ravens’ Week 7 contest will move to Week 8, into the Steelers and Ravens original Week 8 bye.
While this change isn’t confirmed yet, I fully expect the NFL to schedule the game during the regular season and not to add games onto the end of the year. Therefore, fantasy owners should still get the same number of games from Titans’ and Steelers’ players, and this should solely represent a change in bye weeks. Even though that could disrupt fantasy owners’ plans, especially in superflex leagues, we all need to remain flexible during these crazy times.
Future Issues
I do not expect this will be the only game rescheduled due to COVID-19 this season. In this case, there is a relatively simple option to move the game, but that might not necessarily be the case for a future COVID-19 outbreak. More worryingly, if the Steelers or Titans have another COVID-19 problem, they will have had their bye week, so making up a second game would represent a further challenge.
At this point, I believe that at least some NFL teams will not play a game during the standard Week 1-Week 16 fantasy season. In my opinion, the NFL will likely push back the playoffs a week or two and create a playoff bubble environment, giving them time to finish the season. I do not think that the NFL will cancel any games, and each team will complete their entire 16-game schedule.
However, that scenario could be a nightmare for fantasy leagues, which run on a strict 16-week season. Unfortunately, we can’t rearrange the fantasy season during the season, so we have to take these events as they come and deal with them. As I’ve said a few times, the NFL season will play out, but certain circumstances may occur that are unfair to fantasy owners based solely on luck with COVID-19. I recognize that sucks, but my job is to continue to give you all the best advice I can each week, which I will continue to do.
Thanks for reading this article. You can find me on Twitter at @DFF_Karp. I love to interact with anyone in the community, so reach out at any time! I take fantasy questions and help with all formats, so keep sending those questions my way.
