The NFL made a number of changes to the schedule for Week Six and beyond as a result of rescheduling the Broncos-Patriots game for this Sunday and the Chargers were involved in many of them.
Week Six was supposed to find them playing the hapless Jets, but they have a bye instead as that game has been moved to later in the season in order to facilitate the league’s attempt to stick to a 17-week schedule. Their bye week had been set for Week 10, but they’ll now face the Dolphins that week.
The change is one that defensive end Joey Bosa welcomes. Bosa has triceps and knee injuries that kept him out of practice last week and he said on Wednesday that he’s “definitely pretty beat up” for five weeks into the season. Several other Chargers are also banged up, so Bosa thinks it will be a beneficial week off for the team.
“Selfishly, I need [the break] right now,” Bosa said, via Jeff Miller of the Los Angeles Times. “It’s huge for a lot of guys. Of course, once Week 10 rolls around, we’re going to be bumming that we don’t have a week off.”
The schedule changes underscore what an unusual season this is, but Bosa said the number of injuries aren’t anything new because the Chargers have “kind of always dealt with” having several key players out during his time with the team. They’ll hope to have some of them back when the Jaguars come to town in Week Seven.