Raiders’ Casey Hayward Takes Issue With NFLPA President’s Involvement In Scheduling Matchup

The NFL announced on Friday there would be a few schedule changes to Week 15's matchups due to COVID-depleted rosters, starting with Saturday's game as the Las Vegas Raiders were slated to travel to face the Cleveland Browns.

While the Saturday game has been moved to Monday, some members of the Raiders took to social media to share their thoughts.

Raiders cornerback Casey Hayward sarcastically pointed out that Cleveland Browns center J.C. Tretter, who also serves as the NFLPA president, lobbying to give teams more time to prepare due to the COVID outbreaks "didn't have any effect."

"I’m sure the president playing for the Browns didn’t have any effect on these negotiations," Hayward wrote.

Hours later, Hayward said he was "still hot about the game being moved" and wish the Browns players well.

Raiders linebacker K.J. Wright also tweeted that he thought something fishy was going on saying, "We agreed that their wouldn’t be any postponed game this season right?!"

Wright wrote that he believes if the roles were reversed, his team would be playing still with no postponements.

As of Friday afternoon, Cleveland has 24 players on their reserve/COVID-19 list including quarterback Baker Mayfield, wide receiver Jarvis Landry, offensive guard Wyatt Teller, tight end Austin Hooper and left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr.

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski also tested positive, and the team has been in enhanced COVID mitigation protocols since earlier in the week.

Despite the NFL telling teams before the season that it would not move games this season due to COVID-19 outbreaks — teams would instead forfeit — the league moved multiple Week 15 contests. So the Raiders and Browns weren't the only teams to see their schedule change.

The Washington Football Team and Philadelphia Eagles game, along with the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams game scheduled for Sunday have also been moved — both will be played on Tuesday.

The league said in a statement it continues to make decisions with medical experts to ensure the health and safety of the NFL community.

"We have made these schedule changes based on medical advice and after discussion with the NFLPA as we are seeing a new, highly transmissible form of the virus this week resulting in a substantial increase in cases across the league," the NFL said.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to all 32 teams explaining Friday's changes to the schedule and said, "The emergence of the Omicron variant is precisely the kind of change that warrants a flexible response."

Week 15's updated schedule can be seen below:

Follow Meg Turner on Twitter @Megnturner_ and Instagram @Megnturner.

Signup for OutKick VIP by clicking here, and keep up with all OutKick's latest betting info by clicking here and following OutKick Bets on Twitter.

New FanDuel Sportsbook users can make their first bet risk-free up to $1,000. If the bet loses, the FanDuel Sportsbook will refund you in site credit. New users can lock in this offer NOW by clicking this link.