Which NFL teams have coronavirus cases and the league’s response, explained

NFL players are tested daily during the regular season except on game days, with the final testing before games done the morning before. Any coach, player or staffer who has an inconclusive result from the test taken the day before the game can be cleared to play with a negative test result on game day, provided that the result is available at least two hours before kickoff.

Last week, the NFL and the players’ union announced that daily testing — except on game days — will continue indefinitely. The league also announced that players and coaches will not be allowed to leave their cities during their bye weeks.

If a player tests positive, what happens next depends on whether he is showing symptoms of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, or is asymptomatic.

If a player tests positive and is showing symptoms: The player cannot return until at least 10 days have passed since the player first reported the symptoms and until at least 72 hours have passed since the symptoms last occurred. The player’s return must be approved by the team physician after consultation with the NFL’s chief medical officer and must adhere to local regulations.

If a player tests positive and is not showing symptoms: The player cannot return until 10 days have passed since the initial positive test or the player tests negative in consecutive PCR tests separated by 24 hours. The player’s return must be approved by the team physician after consultation with the NFL’s chief medical officer.

Players who test positive or who have been quarantined or are isolating after having been in close contact with an infected person or people are placed on the covid-19 reserve list, a new category of injured reserve created this season.

Though there is a covid-reserve list, it does not specify which players have tested positive for the coronavirus. Under the protocol worked out between the league and the players, teams are not allowed to divulge that a player has tested positive, and a player’s presence on the covid-reserve list does not necessarily mean he has tested positive. He could have come into close contact with a person who has tested positive, for instance.

Among the players confirmed to have tested positive are Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore and quarterback Cam Newton. But, officially speaking, only players are allowed to reveal if they have tested positive. Only numbers of positive tests are released, such as two Tennessee players having received positive coronavirus test results on Wednesday, or the 18 positive tests among players and staff members over the previous week, which forced their Week 4 game against the Steelers to be postponed.

The Washington Post’s Mark Maske reported that on Thursday another Titans player received a positive coronavirus test result and that another player whose result was inconclusive on Wednesday tested positive Thursday. The NFL did not allow the Titans to reopen their team facility on Wednesday as planned after Tennessee did not see any positive tests on Monday or Tuesday. The Raiders, the third team that received a positive test on Wednesday, were allowed by the league to practice because it had only one case among its players. They reported no new positive cases on Thursday.

The Patriots did not practice Wednesday or Thursday after Gilmore received his positive test result, as it was the third for New England in the past five days (Newton and practice squad defensive lineman Bill Murray were the other players who tested positive). The Patriots did not have any new positive tests on Thursday morning, Maske reported, but Coach Bill Belichick confirmed the team facility would remain closed through Thursday.

The league has yet to announce whether these latest test results will affect any Week 5 games. The Patriots, whose Week 4 game against the Kansas City Chiefs was moved from Sunday to Monday because of Newton’s positive test, are scheduled to host the Denver Broncos at 4:25 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. The Titans, who last played Sept. 27, are scheduled to host the Buffalo Bills at 1:05, while the Raiders visit the Kansas City Chiefs at the same time. The Chiefs did not see any positive coronavirus tests on Wednesday or Thursday.

Should the Titans not be able to play against the Bills on Sunday, the NFL’s options for rescheduling that game are limited. Tennessee already has had its bye week when last week’s game against the Steelers was moved to later in the season, and the Bills are scheduled to play four days later against the Kansas City Chiefs to open up Week 6.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, for one, isn’t thrilled with the schedule disruptions. Pittsburgh was forced to take its bye in Week 4 after the league postponed its game with the Titans last weekend, and Roethlisberger said Wednesday that the Steelers “got the short end of the stick.”

Pittsburgh now must play the Titans in Week 7 and then the Ravens in Week 8

Maske reported that the NFL and its players’ union are investigating whether a group of Titans players gathered on their own away from the team’s facility over the past week for workouts, in violation of an order last week from the league that they not get together for any reason. Tennessee could face discipline from the league — possible game forfeits or the loss of draft picks, Commissioner Roger Goodell said this week — if its players were found to have violated the league’s coronavirus protocols.

Titans Coach Mike Vrabel has maintained that the team did not violate league rules.