Steelers-Titans pushed back to Monday or Tuesday

The NFL didn't wait long to let the Steelers and Titans know their regularly scheduled game Sunday in Nashville, Tenn., was going to be postponed.

The league informed both teams Wednesday morning the game would be pushed back. What the league isn't telling the teams is when the game will actually be played, other than it could be Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Mike Tomlin said Wednesday, he expects the game to be played Monday and a report that came out later in the day suggests that will be the case. If it is played Monday, it might have to be earlier than the regularly scheduled Monday night game, which will be played in Green Bay and feature the Packers against the Falcons. That means it could start as early as 4:30 p.m.

The Monday time is preferred by the NFL. CBS, which is carrying the game, would prefer to hold it at 7 p.m. Tuesday, according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. But the NFL will likely hold fast on the Monday date.

The league made the move to push the game back to allow for additional testing of Titans players before allowing them back into the field. The COVID-19 virus can take several days before it shows up in testing. The Titans had three players and five front office personnel test positive for coronavirus Monday after playing the Vikings Sunday in Minnesota.

The Titans are not permitted to return to their practice facility until Saturday at the earliest per NFL rules, though Titans head coach Mike Vrabel said Wednesday morning that he feels the league will make sure the team gets at least one day of practice before the team plays.

"We are preparing to play the football game now as early as Monday," Vrabel said. "We're confident the league will allow us time to practice, at least get on the field to practice, and then move forward with the game."

The Titans did hold scheduled meetings via Zoom calls and were able to get players needing treatment for injuries in to see the team's trainers.

But beyond that, they aren't permitted to hold any in-person meetings.

Vrabel, who said he was not one of the people who tested positive, would not name the members of the team's front office staff who did, though the three players who tested positive were nose tackle DaQuan Jones, long-snapper Beau Brinkley and tight end Tommy Hudson have been placed on the Reserve/COVID List. Outside linebackers coach and defensive play caller Shane Bowen tested positive last Saturday before the Titans' game against the Vikings and did not make the trip to Minnesota. The Titans also had linebacker Kamalei Correa test positive on Wednesday and he also was placed on the Reserve/COVID List.

"We've evaluated what we've done and the protocols and how we've handled the meetings," Vrabel said. "We continue to have social distancing in those meetings. We'll have to continue to exercise extreme caution when we go back in. We're not interested in trying to blame anybody and where it started. Nobody's to blame. We're in a pandemic. We want to make sure the players are safe and this doesn't happen again.

The Steelers, meanwhile, held their regularly scheduled practice Wednesday that was scheduled to begin at 12:15 p.m. Earlier in the day, the Steelers expressed no sympathy for the fact the Titans will be unable to practice at all this week because of the situation.

The Steelers, who host the Eagles Oct. 11, would prefer to play the game Monday night to avoid an even shorter work week than usual after the game.

This is the first time this season an NFL game has been pushed back because of COVID-19 concerns.