With positive COVID-19 cases piling up around the NFL, Bill Belichick braces for bad news each time he arrives at the New England Patriots' facility.
So far, the Patriots have been fortunate to largely avoid the league-wide spike in COVID positives fueled by the new Omicron variant. But Belichick knows that can change at any point.
"Whatever we're doing, I think we're doing the best that we can," New England's head coach said Monday in a video conference. "We're doing all that we can. It's not perfect. Will it be good enough? Will it be good? We'll see. Every day, you kind of walk in here, and if our medical people came in one day and said we have 20 people positive, I don't think any of us would be surprised.
"It's nice to hear that we have no positives or that we have no symptoms. Those are great words to hear. But I don't think it would surprise any of us. We've already seen five, six, seven teams, whatever it is, have a wide-ranging problem on their team, between staff and players or both. Who's next? I don't know. Maybe nobody. It wouldn't surprise me if it was anybody."
With more than 100 players landing on the reserve/COVID-19 list last week, the NFL was forced to reschedule three Week 15 games, moving Las Vegas Raiders-Cleveland Browns to Monday afternoon and Seattle Seahawks-Los Angeles Rams and Washington Football Team-Philadelphia Eagles both to Tuesday.
The depleted Browns will play Monday without a slew of key players, including starting quarterback Baker Mayfield and his primary backup, Case Keenum.
This league also overhauled its COVID protocols in reaction to this surge, reinstituting many of its 2020 restrictions and altering its testing program. Individuals who are vaccinated and asymptomatic no longer will be required to test each week, while unvaccinated players still must submit to daily testing.
The Patriots entered the week with just three players on the COVID list: running back J.J. Taylor, offensive lineman Yasir Durant and tight end Dalton Keene, who also is on season-ending injured reserve. Starting safety Kyle Dugger missed New England's Week 13 win over the Buffalo Bills following a positive test but returned to action last week.
"I don't think any of us know what to expect," Belichick said. "We're following the league rules and protocols, which have been significantly enhanced, or been more restrictive, which I think we all understand, but I think we have to make adjustments and be in compliance with them. We put up a wall in our weight room over the weekend and things like that to be in compliance like we did last year. What this week will bring, I don't know.
"Again, I don't really have any say in this, but we'll continue to do the best that we can to keep everybody as safe, distanced, masked, and protected as we can. It's certainly an imperfect situation on multiple levels."
