Dolphins Schedule Twist and the Possible Ramifications

The Miami Dolphins apparently are about to become one of those teams that will have their 2020 schedule rearranged even though they have not had any players test positive for COVID-19 since the start of the regular season.

The NFL officially postpone the Week 5 game between the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium, and multiple reports indicate that game now will be played Oct. 18.

But that also happened they day the Dolphins were scheduled to play at Denver, which obviously would mean a change for that matchup.

The Dolphins-Broncos game will be moved to Nov. 22, according to ESPN analyst Adam Schefter.

Here’s the plan, per sources, which is tied to Tennessee being able to play:

🏈Broncos-Patriots next Sunday.

🏈Week 8 (what was supposed to be Denver bye): Chargers at Broncos.

🏈Week 11 (scheduled Miami bye) Dolphins at Broncos.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 11, 2020

That date initially was supposed to be the Dolphins bye, between their home-and-home games against the New York Jets.

The Broncos initially were scheduled to face the Los Angeles Chargers on Nov. 22, so that conflict will have to be addressed one way or another.

But this about the Dolphins and what the rumored schedule change could entail.

And, as it always seems to be the case with the 2020 Dolphins, there's a Tua Tagovailoa angle to the story.

The bye always has been seen as a good time to make a quarterback change, particularly when it involves a rookie taking over the offense.

But now the bye has moved from Week 11 to Week 6, so what does it mean in terms of Tua possible replacing Ryan Fitzpatrick as the Dolphins starting quarterback?

If the Dolphins lose against the San Francisco in Week 5 and/or Fitzpatrick has a sub-par performance, rest assured that head coach Brian Flores will be asked about a potential quarterback change — perhaps even right after the game.

Flores didn't sound like someone who was on the verge of making a change after he explained Wednesday his decision to stick with Fitzpatrick as the starting quarterback, saying he didn't feel that Tagovailoa was ready yet.

Would he be more ready to start in Week 7 after a bye? That clearly is a question with which Flores will have to grapple if Fitzpatrick struggles against the 49ers.

From a team perspective, having the bye go from Week 11 to Week 6 isn't a really big deal. It's also a better situation if the Dolphins know in advance instead of the Broncos, who were forced into a bye because of the positive tests in New England after putting in a full work week in preparation of a game that ended up being postponed.

The issue of adding a Week 18 to the NFL regular season to deal with postponed games has been brought up and it certainly makes sense if the only consequence would be to eliminate the bye week between the conference title games and the Super Bowl.

For now, though, the Dolphins were merely awaiting official confirmation of their revised schedule.

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