Tim Benz: Steelers-Ravens slog shows NFL must streamline its covid-19 contingency plans

Steelers fans all over the country are wondering the same thing right now.

How long are Thanksgiving leftovers safe to eat? Can they keep until Tuesday night?

Or, uh, Week 18? That’d be a week after New Year’s Day. So you might want to freeze them now if that’s the case.

At this point, the entire NFL is going to be happy if the looming coronavirus-cursed Steelers game against the Baltimore Ravens is finally played Tuesday, regardless of whether it has Thanksgiving fanfare or not. And nothing says “lack of fanfare” like a twice-delayed NFL game shoehorned into a Tuesday night.

What?! Steelers-Ravens on NBC up against “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” on CBS?! By the way, Rudy, I hear a red nose is a symptom of covid-19. You better get a swab test. We can’t have a breakout at the North Pole this close to Christmas Eve.

Let’s hope reindeer are less susceptible to a spread than ravens are. At least the ones in Baltimore, anyway.

Eighteen players have been added to the Ravens’ reserve/covid-19 list this week. Tight end Mark Andrews and receiver Willie Snead were added Sunday. Here’s the full list as of Sunday evening.

Ravens' updated COVID list:

QB: Jackson, McSorley
RB: Ingram, Dobbins
FB: Ricard
TE: Andrews
WR: Snead
OL: Skura, Mekari, Fluker, Holden
DL: Campbell, Williams, Madubuike, Ward, Washington
OLB: Judon, McPhee, Ferguson
CB: Marshall (IR), Dorsey (IR), Young (IR)
ST: Cox

— Jamison Hensley (@jamisonhensley) November 29, 2020

That’s to say nothing of the Steelers’ covid-related absences for this game, including running back James Conner and defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt. Nor of the Denver Broncos having to play a game Sunday without any of the quarterbacks on their roster.

When it comes to avoiding a covid crisis, the NFL has danced through the raindrops until this point. But that borrowed time appears to be expiring. Especially if we are to believe all the ugly predictions of what will happen when Thanksgiving travelers get reintroduced to the general population this week.

With no league-wide bubble in place, these NFL players can only avoid exposure for so long.

So commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners need to figure out what the real goal is moving forward. Is the league trying to get all the games played? Or is the goal just to finish the season in a representative fashion?

Is the NFL attempting to keep all the players and coaches “safe”? Or is it trying to keep them “as safe as possible” under the circumstances?

Because, right now, the league is starting to slip on all fronts. If pure safety from the virus was the goal, the league should’ve created a bubble format back in August. Or it should’ve canceled the season.

You want safe? That’s safe. Sorry. But that’s the only way to do “safe” in 2020. Hide in your house until a vaccine becomes available.

But now that the NFL is three months down this path, it’s going to be hell-bent on finishing the season. To do so, it finally needs to come up with a real plan to figure out how to best handle the reality of its situation. Because as bye weeks begin to disappear and scheduling delays and manipulations begin to back up, the league is going to start running out of magically created Thursday and Tuesday options, just as the schedule gets to its most crucial contests.

The NFL needs a clearer plan. Guidelines. Contingencies. And they need to be public.

With all of the covid-related problems the league has surfed through this year, there is very little evidence to suggest that players are apt to spread covid to the opposing side of the line of scrimmage.

That’s not to say it’s impossible. That’s to say quite a few players, who tested negative on a game day but positive the next day or two, didn’t seem to pass along a strand that incubated in players on the other team.

Like when the Vikings suited up across from the Tennessee Titans earlier this year. Or when JuJu Smith- Schuster and the Steelers receivers were guarded by Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey. Or Stephon Gilmore’s contact with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City wide receivers during a Chiefs game against his New England Patriots. Or Steelers tight end Vance McDonald playing in Dallas.

So if the opposing roster can field a team with players that haven’t tested positive, they should play the game. Like they should’ve played Steelers-Ravens Thursday. That’s what I think.

That’s what the college players have been doing. Pitt played without 16 guys a few weeks ago when they beat Virginia Tech. And those guys aren’t even being paid. There is no collective bargaining agreement to protect them.

Because how much longer are they going to kick the Steelers-Ravens situation down the road if the game still can’t be played Tuesday? And if they had played Thursday, then it would be Ravens-Cowboys (originally scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 3) that would be in a state of flux instead.

If the NFL doesn’t want such a blunt standard, then it needs to address a few questions. Immediately. So every team knows the answers.

• What’s the exact threshold to administer a forfeit? Is it a total number of players on the covid-19 list? Is it a percentage of roster/staff infected?

• What’s it going to take to implement a buffer week (or Week 18) at the end of the season? We’ve constantly heard this is a possibility. What will make it transpire?

• What’s going to happen if a Steelers-Ravens situation develops during a playoff week? Will playoff games get moved?

• Why are some teams getting forced to play under extremely strained roster circumstances? Why do some get their dates rescheduled?

• Who gets to make decisions as to when facilities will or will not be shut down, as we saw in Baltimore this week?

• How will things work for the playoffs and draft order if teams finish with unbalanced records?

• Is it time to start negotiating plans for a bubble with the NFLPA? If so, get going now. Otherwise, I’m wondering if the Super Bowl is going to start to conflict with Opening Day in MLB.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin frequently talks about “having a plan in place, while being light on your feet.” Tomlin has twirled that phrase for many different situations over the years. But he has used it often in 2020 given this year’s murky covid-19 morass.

Goodell would be wise to fully adopt that credo. He’s got the “light on his feet” part down. Having the plan in place, though, seems to be the element they are missing.