DaQuan Jones, Beau Brinkley, and Tommy Hudson appear to be the three unnamed players reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 early Tuesday morning.
The Titans have been very protective of information regarding player injuries and positive COVID tests, but with these roster moves being reported on the NFL’s transaction wire we can pretty safely assume that those are the three players who have reportedly had confirmed positive tests.
The team is currently in the process of deep cleaning their facility and all players and staff are staying away, quarantined at home, until further testing can be done. The hope, of course, is that this is the extent of the outbreak among the Titans locker room, but we won’t know for sure for a few days. After being exposed to COVID, it can sometimes take several days for tests to turn positive, hence the closing of the facility until Saturday.
If — and again, it’s a big if — these are the only three positive cases among the Titans roster, that’s a tough-but-manageable loss. DaQuan Jones qualifies as the biggest loss, especially for a defense that is already struggling to stop the run and now will be without their top nose tackle for at least one week.
Beau Brinkley is relatively significant too. Longsnappers don’t make many highlight reel plays, but he’s been reliable and consistent on punts and field goals since 2012 for the Titans. I don’t know if the team will roll with emergency longsnapper Ben Jones for this game or try to go out and sign another specialist, but someone new will be snapping the ball to Brett Kern for the first time in over 8 years.
Hudson, a rookie tight end on the practice squad, won’t be a significant loss on the field.
All things considered, this could have been much worse. However, there is a chance that Jones and Brinkley miss more than one game, depending on how quickly they are able to recover and begin producing negative tests again.
Obviously, our thoughts are with all the players and staff members who have contracted the virus and we wish them all a speedy recovery.
No longsnapper is one thing, but no longsnapper and no team practice all week for the replacement to build any kind of rapport with Kern is… not ideal.
Since they don’t have a backup long snapper I hope they prepared for this potential situation by running Ben Jones with special teams more this year. It will still be tough without practice snaps this week regardless.
I’m calling it now: Steelers game comes down to game winning field goal, Ben executes a perfect snap and it’s in! Titans 4-0