4 ways the NFL could solve its Bills-Titans scheduling problem

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For a second straight week, the Tennessee Titans are dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak, with another player testing positive on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases — per USA TODAY Sports — to 23, which includes 13 players.

That’s cast a lot of doubt on Sunday’s Week 15 game against the Buffalo Bills, with a lot of speculation on what’s next, because the Titans already had their bye week moved to last week when their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers was moved to Week 7.

So we’ve compiled some of the reports and speculation over what could happen next. Let’s go over some of the possibilities:

1. Forfeit

There’s a lot of buzz about this on social media, especially after an NFL memo indicated that could happen to teams due to “protocol violations.” But it also feels very extreme when this could happen as a result:

2. The game could be moved to Monday or Tuesday

As ESPN’s Dianna Russini reported, that would require Thursday’s Chiefs-Bills game to be moved. But it ALSO requires the Titans to be COVID-19 free for a few days, and there’s a lot of risk attached to that. But how will the NFL handle discipline if they found there was indeed a protocol violation? I would guess some fines and draft picks lost.

3. Week 18!

This is an idea people have been floating on social media for a couple of week and it’s smart: move the playoffs back and have a week to play all the makeup games that might have been postponed due to COVID-19. It’s simple, it’s not messy and it gets rid of the headache that comes with having to reschedule games.

4. Move it to a different week

The Buffalo News came up with this:

Oct. 11: Bills get bye instead of playing Tennessee.

Nov. 15: Bills game at Arizona is postponed and Bills play at Tennessee on Monday, Nov. 16.

Nov. 23: Bills visit Arizona.

Intriguing, but as that post points out, the Titans would have three straight games on four days of rest. So, probably not.

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