Tennessee Titans test positive for COVID-19, Steelers game uncertain

Titans, Steelers game uncertain after COVID tests.

Right now the Tennessee Titans have 10 players and/or personnel that have tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of their matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend.

Multiple sources (including the Tennessee Titans) have confirmed these reports and that there are no false positives. Right now we are all sitting and waiting for more information to come out, and there is a lot that still is left undecided.

There are a lot of layers to this issue, but there is some good news here that I want to touch on before we really get into what this means for the Titans, the Steelers, and the rest of the NFL.

First of all, it should be noted that the Minnesota Vikings have 0 positive cases after testing and they are awaiting re-tests. It is presumed that if those re-tests come back negative that they will immediately resume work and that they won’t be affected beyond missing a day of light practice.

It also should be noted that the cases on the Titans have been confirmed to be asymptomatic, meaning that they tested positive for the virus but that they haven’t had any clear symptoms. My understanding (I am not a doctor or an epidemiologist) is that this is good news because it means that they aren’t in any sort of discomfort and that no one would know that they had it if not for these tests.

Alright, let’s start peeling back the layers and look at what we know.

What we know

247Sports has a Tennessee Titans site covering the team and their Twitter account summed up a lot of what we know. I have embedded that below:

You may remember that I said 10 and not 8 at the beginning of this article. Well, the additional information we know is that the Titans defacto DC, Shane Bowen has also tested positive for COVID-19, but he didn’t travel to the game on Sunday. That would be number nine.

We also know that rookie 1st round pick Isaiah Wilson has been on the COVID-19 list for three weeks now and has yet to come off the list. That makes ten.

I don’t think we will learn the names of the players affected until later this afternoon when they are placed on the COVID-19 list. However, it might take longer to learn the coaches affected by this because if the team is working from home they are under no obligation to tell anyone anything about who has it and there won’t be a way to connect the dots.

Let’s talk about what this means for the Steelers.

What does this mean for the Steelers?

By all accounts, it is business as usual for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The NFL has told them to assume that there is going to be a game played this weekend and that if it is played this weekend it will be the Titans and not some team swap or anything like that.

The reason I bring that up is because there is a theory on a way that the Steelers and Titans could change their schedules to postpone this week’s matchup. I’m not sure who came up with it first, but I am going to credit Teresa Walker:

So this means that both teams would have a makeshift bye week in Week 4 (this week) and then the Steelers would travel to Tennessee to play the Titans in Week 7. To make room for that, the Ravens and Steelers would play in Week 8 which would be the Steelers original bye week.

Now, Steelers fans might look at that and realize that this adjustment means that the Ravens would get a bye week to prepare for the Steelers ahead of their matchup in Week 8. That isn’t exactly fair, but the league has said that whatever comes next probably won’t be perfectly fair.

However, it is better than a possible alternative of calling this a “no contest” and that the Steelers and Titans only play 15 games. That could mean that a team like the Cincinnati Bengals would have an edge on both teams if they all end up with 8 wins because the Bengals have that tie in their back pocket.

Either way, the plan right now is for a game in Week 4, and until we find out more information that should be the presumption.

Now, I have mixed feelings about what this means for the Titans.

What this means for the Titans (fan version)

This is probably the worst time for the Titans to cancel or postpone a game from a fan’s point of view.

Why? Well, two weeks ago the Titans announced that they were going to allow fans to finally return to the stadium in Week 4 to host the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The week after, season ticket holders were allowed to buy tickets on a first-come, first-serve basis where you were given more or less time depending on where your seats were and how long you had been a season ticket holder.

This led to a mad dash for tickets and some “fans” ended up grabbing as many as they could just to put them on the resale market. People called these fans trash and other names, but I won’t do that here.

I bring that up because look at some of these prices, nearly $4,000 for a pair of seats.

https://twitter.com/ChattTennSports/status/1308521362634559488

Let’s say you were a fan who loves the Titans and decided that you were going to buy the cheapest tickets you could find. It seems like that would have ended up costing about $1,200 for two with all hidden costs/fees included.

That isn’t all the expenses you probably needed to cover though. Assuming you live out of town you will also have had to book a hotel room, pay for gas, meals, etc.

Before it is all said and done you are looking at a $2,000 trip based around these tickets and now you are stuck with no answers on what is going to happen on Sunday.

Now you can’t cancel your reservations because if the Titans play a game on Sunday then you will have paid $1,200 for seats for a game that won’t be rescheduled. If you do go to Nashville and then the game is canceled, you might be stuck with $1,200 worth of tickets for a game that you can’t make a month later.

Sure, there may be some refunds possible but at the end of the day you are going to have to spend the next three days stressing over possible outcomes and you paid $2,000 to do that. What a nightmare.

What this means for the Titans (team version)

From a team perspective, there are pros and cons to both sides, and this is just assuming that the players and personnel that tested positive aren’t major pieces of the team (which is a big assumption).

On one hand, postponing the matchup means that you will likely play in Week 5 with Taylor Lewan, Adoree Jackson, A.J. Brown, and potentially the 3 players who have tested positive for COVID.

It also gives you a week to prepare for the Buffalo Bills who have been a thorn in the side of the Titans for a long time and who look like the best Buffalo team in a decade or more. There is a benefit there too.

The negative is that this team seems like a well-oiled machine on offense right now, not to mention the kicking game. What happens if a week off of distractions pushes the Titans back into Week 1 levels of performance and they just aren’t in sync?

That means that you would have to play three critical games in a row where you are trying to get your footing vs the Bills, Steelers and Houston Texans and now there isn’t a bye week at the end of that stretch to look forward to. That isn’t an ideal situation.

There are definitely more pros than cons to postponing the game if possible, but is the league really going to punish the Pittsburgh Steelers for a mistake that the Tennessee Titans made? I’m not so sure that they would and they might look at this as a chance to enforce some soft punishment to the Titans as a message to the rest of the teams in the NFL.

That message being, if you don’t do everything you can to keep COVID and NFL out of the same sentence, then get ready to play a game without any practice that week and suffer the consequences.