Wilson Has Chance to Get Back to Work

Titans' first-round pick in this year's draft has been on the COVID-19 reserve list since Sept. 6.

NASHVILLE – The good news for the Tennessee Titans is that they have not added anyone to their COVID-19 reserve list for the last two days.

It is possible that things could get even better Wednesday. There is a chance, coach Mike Vrabel said Tuesday, that one player could be removed.

Rookie tackle Isaiah Wilson has been on the COVID reserve list since Sept. 6, eight days before the regular season opener. League rules mandate that a player who tests positive for the coronavirus must be out a minimum of 10 days, but the 29th overall pick in this year’s draft has been out for more than a month.

Wilson was expected to compete to be the Titans’ starting right tackle this season. Instead, he is one of three first-round picks in this year’s draft who have yet to appear in an NFL game. The other two are quarterbacks, Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa and Green Bay’s Jordan Love.

“There's some things that we continue to monitor with (Wilson), and [we are] hopeful that we could get him back (Wednesday) and be able to evaluate him and his potential return from that list,” Vrabel said.

Wilson was the first member of the Titans to be put on the COVID-19 reserve list this season and the only player to have the designation twice. He was first put on the list July 28, the start of training camp. That stint was a short one.

Of the 11 players currently sidelined by the virus (eight from the active roster, three from the practice squad), none have been out as long as Wilson. Nine of those 11 were added last week when the Titans experienced an outbreak that caused the NFL to postpone Tennessee’s scheduled game with Pittsburgh.

The team’s training facility has been shut down for a week.

“Excited that we've been able to string together a couple really good days as far as the testing, and really just getting back to where we were,” Vrabel said. “Hoping, again, for some continued good news (Wednesday) morning, and then we'll kind of see where we are with the league and hopeful to return and get back into the building.”

And maybe even get a notable player back on the roster.


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David Boclair
DAVID BOCLAIR

David Boclair has covered the Tennessee Titans for multiple news outlets since 1998. He is award-winning journalist who has covered a wide range of topics in Middle Tennessee as well as Dallas-Fort Worth, where he worked for three different newspapers from 1987-96. As a student journalist at Southern Methodist University he covered the NCAA's decision to impose the so-called death penalty on the school's football program.