The Tennessee Titans had 13 players test positive for COVID-19 since September 29th, shutting down their facility, postponing their Week 4 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers by weeks, and postponing their game against the Buffalo Bills to Tuesday night. With all the postponements, it’s been two weeks since the first players tested positive, which means some of them have returned to the active roster.
The NFL’s protocols for the return of COVID-positive players differs from symptomatic to asymptomatic players. Titans coach Mike Vrabel and QB Ryan Tannehill have both said that players on the Titans were both symptomatic and asymptomatic, so we don’t know which players were which.
— Asymptomatic players can be reactivated once 10 days have passed since the initial positive test OR five days have passed since the initial positive test AND the player returns two consecutive negative PCR virus tests separated by 24 hours.
— Symptomatic players cannot return until at least 10 days have passed since the first COVID symptoms appeared AND at least 72 hours have passed since symptoms last occurred.
There is one more step for the symptomatic players, and that is to pass a heart screening test to make sure the virus hasn’t done long-term damage. It’s based on conditioning and is part of the ramp-up process to getting back in the game.
Of the 13 players that were placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, nine remain on the list:
- WR Corey Davis
- WR Adam Humphries
- DE Jeffery Simmons
- CB Kristian Fulton
- OL Kamalei Correa
- FB Khari Blasingame
- TE MyCole Pruitt
- CB Breon Borders (practice squad)
- WR Cameron Batson (practice squad)
Four players have returned, having cleared the coronavirus protocols:
- Starting nose tackle DaQuan Jones
- Long snapper Beau Brinkley
- Backup right tackle Isaiah Wilson
- Practice squad cornerback Greg Mabin
Theoretically, the team could still remove players from the COVID-19 list today if they’ve had two straight days of negative tests. That remains to be seen and we’ll update if that happens.
UPDATE:
The Titans have activated Fulton and Correa and the duo will be in the lineup tonight.