NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Titans now know when they are rescheduled to play the Pittsburgh Steelers, with that matchup the first NFL game postponed by a COVID-19 outbreak.
Getting back into their own building depends on the results of continued testing. The Titans' cluster expanded by two more players testing positive Friday, pushing the team's total to 14 within the past week.
The Steelers (3-0) were originally set to visit the Titans (3-0) at Nissan Stadium on Sunday, but the NFL first postponed the game until at least Monday or Tuesday before announcing Thursday that it would not be played at all during the fourth week of the season.
It's now set for Sunday, Oct. 25, the seventh week of the season and what was supposed to be an open date for the Titans. The Steelers were scheduled to play at Baltimore that day, with both teams off the following week, but now the Ravens are off in the seventh week and the Pittsburgh-Baltimore pairing is on Nov. 1.
Officials from the NFL and the players' union were in Nashville on Friday, meeting with the Titans and reviewing the way the team is handling the matter. The NFL and the players' union also agreed to continue daily testing, including weeks when teams are off, for the foreseeable future in a decision shared with teams Friday.
Mike Vrabel, who led the Titans to the AFC championship game this past January to cap his second season in Nashville, has said he's very confident the team has followed the league's health and safety protocol precisely and that nobody was to blame for this outbreak during a pandemic.
"We continue to follow protocol from the NFL that was set forth, and that continues to change and adapt and adjust," Vrabel said Thursday. "Whatever the NFL tells us that we're required to do and we're supposed to do as positive tests come in, that's what we'll do."
The Titans added two wide receivers to the COVID-19 reserve list Friday: veteran Adam Humphries and Cameron Batson, who's on the practice squad. Each new positive test requires the team's infectious control officer to track down everyone in contact with those people.
The Minnesota Vikings again had no positive test results Friday, leaving them on target to visit the Houston Texans in a matchup of 0-3 teams Sunday after losing 31-30 to the Titans last weekend. The Vikings returned to practice at their facility on Thursday.
Vrabel has previously said the Titans hoped to return to work inside their building Monday or Tuesday, but further testing could delay that return - and more positives could jeopardize the Titans' next scheduled game, Oct. 11 against the visiting Buffalo Bills.
With the NFL rescheduling their game with the Steelers, the Titans announced Friday that capacity will be expanded as well from the planned 10%, or about 7,000, to 15% with 3,000 more seats available.
Tennessee's outbreak started with a defensive back on the practice squad added to the COVID-19 reserve list on Sept. 24. Two days later, outside linebackers coach Shane Bowen's test result came back positive last Saturday, preventing him from traveling with Tennessee to Minnesota.
This past Tuesday, the Titans placed three players on the COVID-19 reserve list, including defensive captain and lineman DaQuan Jones and long snapper Beau Brinkley, with five other team personnel testing positive. Outside linebacker Kamalei Correa became the fourth player on that list Wednesday, and rookie cornerback Kristian Fulton became the fifth Thursday.
With the new cases, the Titans' total is now 14: seven players and seven other organization members just since last Saturday.
The NFL alerted teams Thursday of new procedures to follow when dealing with an outbreak or having been exposed to a team having an outbreak. Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer said he's proud of how his team has handled the changes.
"We've obviously had to do a lot of extra things that we don't normally do - point-of-care contact test, our normal testing, then you've got to sit in your car and wait until you get to go into the facility," Zimmer said Friday. "We've had to adjust schedules at times, but they've handled it really well."