NFL Postpones Eagles-WFT to Tuesday Night

A COVID-19 outbreak among the Washington Football Team has forced the NFL to move back Sunday's scheduled game to Tuesday night

PHILADELPHIA - The NFL has moved a trio of games in response to an outbreak of COVID-19 tests around the league, including Sunday's scheduled encounter between the Eagles and the Washington Football Team.

Also being moved are a scheduled Saturday encounter between Las Vegas and Cleveland and a Sunday game between the Los Angeles Rams and Settle Seahawks. The former to Monday afternoon and the later to Tuesday night.

The WFT, Browns, and Rams have been exceedingly hard hit by COVID-19 positive tests this week, many among vaccinated players who remain completely asymptomatic.

By Friday morning when Washington placed starting quarterback Taylor Heinicke on the COVID list, Ron Rivera's team had over 20 players in danger of missing Sunday's game and that number was still behind the Rams, who reached 25 players on their COVID list.

The Eagles were hopeful that the game would be played on Sunday but seemed aware that a potential move was looming.

"They tell us where to play and when to play and we'll play there," Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said of the league Friday afternoon after practice. "Haven't heard anything; plan on playing at Sunday at 1 o'clock."

That changed by mid-afternoon.

The Eagles aren't happy with the postponement. A source said they would have preferred to play Monday.

#NFL confirms pic.twitter.com/tlcqkH2EjG

— John McMullen (@JFMcMullen) December 17, 2021

NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills explained to reporters Thursday that roughly two-thirds of the players placed on the league’s COVID-19 list in recent days were asymptomatic and even the ones who weren’t have described mild symptoms.

WFT coach Ron Rivera offered similar sentiments earlier in the week.

“A couple [of players] that I did talk to, just to check on, the first thing they said is ‘Coach, I felt fine. I’ve got no issues,’” Rivera said during a conference call with the Philadelphia media earlier this week. “But you did test positive, so we’ve got to wait and follow the rules. Several of them are tremendously frustrated because they don’t feel anything … that was the hard part.”

Worried that the season could derail from both a health and competitive advantage standpoint, the NFL and the league’s Players Association agreed to a path that could get vaccinated, asymptomatic players back on the field earlier.

The recently identified omicron variant of the virus is living up to the early belief that it would spread more quickly but result in less severe outcomes than previous strains of COVID-19.

The change to the “testing out” protocols in the NFL relates to the so-called viral load and the thought that certain levels should not be considered contagious.

The Eagles, meanwhile, are not happy feeling that they are being punished with a short week following the rescheduled game despite remaining vigilant in their own health and safety protocols.

Currently, the Eagles have only two players on the COVID-19 list, starting wide receiver Quez Watkins and practice-squad running back Jason Huntley.

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

A silver lining to the move could be the status of quarterback Jalen Hurts, who was expected to be listed as questionable for Sunday with a left ankle sprain.

The extra 48-hours plus should give the QB1 a better chance to play against the WFT.

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.