NFL mulling Payments-Bengals choices, together with not ending recreation or pushing schedule into bye week earlier than Tremendous Bowl

Within the wake of the hospitalization of Buffalo Bills security Damar Hamlin throughout Monday Evening Soccer, NFL vp of operations Troy Vincent stated the league is leaving all choices on the desk shifting ahead concerning the schedule. That would embody pushing the convention title video games into the bye week earlier than the Tremendous Bowl, which Vincent didn’t rule out throughout a convention name with reporters on Wednesday.

At first, Vincent stated the league has been checking in with the Bills and head coach Sean McDermott to gauge the crew’s mindset and provide no matter assets are vital because the crew processes Hamlin’s battle and continues to assist his household. However Vincent added that there might be a time within the close to future when the league begins an try at shaping the rest of the Payments’ schedule, together with each the postponed recreation in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals and the Week 18 recreation in opposition to the New England Patriots. As of early Wednesday, these steps had not been taken.

“We now have not had that dialogue,” Vincent stated of the Payments’ Week 18 recreation in opposition to New England. “It’s actually essential that we simply preserve the heart beat of the coach and the gamers and don’t get in entrance of that. We’ll permit Sean [McDermott] and his crew and his workers and his gamers — that are an important factor right here — to information this if we’ve got to make that call collectively with the membership.”

The Bills returned to practice on Wednesday. They took the sphere this morning after the crew discovered that Hamlin has had some “enchancment” in his situation, though the precise nature of that is still non-public. Hamlin stays within the intensive care unit on the College of Cincinnati Medical Middle. The Payments’ counterpart within the Monday night time recreation, the Bengals, will play Sunday in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens.

How and when the Payments and Bengals will make up Monday’s postponed recreation stays unresolved. There are two probably ends in play: The sport is not going to be performed or acknowledged as a accomplished contest, leaving each franchises with a 16-game season and having their playoff seeding decided by win proportion; or the sport might be scheduled in what quantities to a “Week 19,” during which all the playoff schedule is pushed again one week because the Payments and Bengals end out their season. In that latter situation, the playoffs can be pushed into the Tremendous Bowl’s bye week, leading to convention title video games being performed one week earlier than the Tremendous Bowl, reasonably than the present two weeks.

A part of the template for all of this has been how the league handled the 2020 COVID pandemic season, which addressed a number of situations if groups weren’t capable of full their seasons or the Tremendous Bowl’s bye week wanted to be utilized for a scheduling emergency through the playoffs.

“The guiding ideas that took us into the 2020 season with COVID [are on the table].” Vincent stated. “It will not be good, however will permit these taking part to have the ability to play.”