NFL power rankings: Detroit Lions tumble again as COVID causes havoc across the league

Dave Birkett

| Detroit Free Press

Show Caption

The NFL had its most 2020 week yet — and it’s not even over.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to surge around the country, the league is coming dangerously close to needing a Week 18.

This week, the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers had their AFC North showdown postponed three times and counting. The game, originally scheduled as the Thanksgiving nightcap, was moved to Sunday afternoon after the Ravens experienced a COVID-19 outbreak, then postponed a second time to Tuesday when the outbreak failed to wane.

REPLACING PATRICIA: 5 candidates for new Lions coach

REPLACING QUINN: Top candidates for new Lions general manager

On Monday, the league bumped the game back again, to an unheard of Wednesday afternoon start, over safety concerns. Baltimore has had a player or staff member test positive for COVID, or be placed on the reserve-COVID list, for nine straight days.

As weird as that situation is — next week’s games for both the Ravens and Steelers have been rescheduled, too — the Denver Broncos had an even more unusual week.

The NFL forced the Broncos to play their game Sunday against the New Orleans Saints without a quarterback after ex-Lions QB Jeff Driskel tested positive for COVID and the rest of the team’s quarterbacks were deemed high-risk close contacts.

Detroit Lions’ Darrell Bevell explains how he learned about new job

Detroit Lions interim head coach Darrell Bevell speaks to the media on Monday, Nov. 30, 2020.

CARLOS MONARREZ: Lions must tank and trade Stafford. Here’s why

NEW MAN IN CHARGE: Interim coach Darrell Bevell is a candidate for permanent job

STAFFORD SAYS: Lions QB addresses future after coach, GM firings

Denver opened its game in the wildcat formation and used practice squad receiver Kendall Hinton as its quarterback. The Broncos had one first down in the first half, and Hinton finished 1-of-9 passing for 13 yards in the game.

“I was peeking it,” Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “Really more so to see how many more times (former Lions punter) Sam (Martin) was going to have to punt, but it ended up not being too big of a number.”

The NFL did not want to make any exceptions to its policy of postponing games only for health and safety reasons, but COVID absences have impacted the competitiveness of games.

The league seems determined to play its regular 17-week schedule at all costs in order to get to the playoffs, when it’s sure to order teams to create local bubbles. That’s the best way to maximize revenues, but it’s sure made for a weird season.

The Lions, to their credit, have done a good job keeping the virus at bay, but they had their own issues to deal with last week as they lost another lopsided game and fired coached Matt Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn.

They dropped three more spots in this rankings and are once again in line for a top-10 draft pick.