The doors at Gillette Stadium were opened early Saturday morning after being locked the previous three days.
With time running short before their rescheduled game against the Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots were finally able to get back to work for their only full practice of the week, plus some in-person meetings.
Instead of hosting the Broncos on Sunday afternoon, the Patriots will be playing on Monday at the unusual time of 5 p.m. in what is an unusual season.
The Patriots went on hold Wednesday after it was learned All-Pro cornerback Stephon Gilmore had tested positive for COVID-19, joining quarterback Cam Newton, who missed Monday night’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Coach Bill Belichick, in an 8 a.m. conference call Saturday, said both Newton and Gilmore would not be taking part in practice later in the day and would not speculate on their availability for Monday night.
The Patriots were spending the day playing catch up after missing out on three important practices.
There were reports that testing Friday on Patriots players and staff produced no positive results, but Belichick is aware how things can change in an instant this season, so he is going “hour by hour” rather than “day by day.”
“One thing we’ve learned this year is that we all have to be able to adapt to changes and make adjustments, so that’s what we’re going to do,” said Belichick. “Our practice today is going to be configured in a way that will try to maximize our opportunity to get on the field and continue our preparations for Denver.
“We’ll continue to be ready to adjust and adapt to whatever we have to do. We’re literally taking this, I wouldn’t even say day by day, it’s more hour by hour. We’ll continue to move forward, but at the same time know we have to be ready to change, adjust and adapt as the situation calls for it.”
Newton, whose positive test result was revealed a week ago Saturday morning and forced the Patriots-Chiefs game to be switched from Sunday to Monday, was replaced by Brian Hoyer.
After Hoyer struggled, he was replaced late in the third quarter by Jarrett Stidham in his first real NFL action.
Belichick didn’t say who would be the starter against the Broncos, though a full practice would offer clarity to that situation.
“(It’s) 8:30 on Saturday morning,” said Belichick during his conference call. “We’ll go through practice and go through the next day and see how things (go). It’s the same at every position. I haven’t seen our team since Monday night in Kansas City.
“We haven’t done anything together except have virtual meetings. I’m not sure where we are in a lot of cases. We haven’t even had an in-person staff meeting. We’ve been able to talk about things, but talking about things is one thing and doing them is a whole other story. We’ll take it as it comes.
“Really not trying to make a lot of long-term decisions or even game decisions until we can actually get out there today and start to go through our team preparation process together and get a better sense of where we are and what we need to do in the next 48-plus hours.”
With only one practice at their disposal, the Patriots face a challenge in their preparation for the Broncos, who are scheduled to arrive in New England on Sunday afternoon.
It marks the second straight week of upheaval leading into a game, but Belichick said that his players have adapted and are dealing with the situation.
“They’ve done a good job adjusting all year,” said Belichick. “We’ve done things this year differently than we’ve ever done them before or probably anybody’s ever done them before. They’ve done an excellent job of adjusting and adapting.”
The sole full practice session on Saturday was going to be chock full of activity as the Patriots got back on the field for the last time since last Monday night in Kansas City.
There were plenty of video conference meetings the previous three days, but physical activity was lacking. Belichick said he made the decision to shut down Gillette Stadium after Gilmore’s positive test.
“We’ll have to work maybe a little bit harder to make up for some of the on the field practice time that we’ve missed this week, but we can’t compromise the health, safety and well being of our football team, including our staff,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the way to go.
“We want to maximize everyone’s health and safety. That’s our approach. That’s the way I look at it and I know that’s the way Mr. (Robert) Kraft looks at it. That’s what we’re going to continue to do. We’ll put the team first and that’s our philosophy.”
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