Due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in the United States, the NFL has imposed an intense protocol for the rest of the season. The use of masks will be mandatory at all times at team facilities, including during practices and in the weight rooms.

For the first time in franchise history, the Steelers are 8-0 after their gutsy win at Dallas last week. That makes 14 straight non-losing seasons for Head Coach Mike Tomlin, tied for the longest streak for a coach to start his career in NFL History.

According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, the NFL Competition committee is expected to present to the NFL owners a contingency plan on having a 16-team playoff season (eight in each conference) if games are lost due to COVID-19.

According to Adam Schefter, the NFL is currently planning for 20 percent capacity at Super Bowl LV in Tampa Bay. Fans will be in pods six feet apart and masks will be required. With the slow emergence of fans at many stadiums across the league, it makes sense that they would want socially distant fans at the biggest game of the year.

Entering Thursday Night’s Eagles-Giants game, 10 teams had only one win or less. Of those ten teams, six of them have a 1-5 record. The combined record of those 10 teams are 9-48-2. Of those ten teams, two of them have fired their head coach. This is very unusual statistic for an NFL season that will go down as one of the strangest in its 101 year history.

As if there weren’t any more bad news in Atlanta, as one member of their personnel staff had a positive test for COVID-19. As of Thursday, October 15th, the game at Minnesota has not been cancelled, but everyone in the NFL will be keeping an eye out for that game this week.

While there were impressive performances last week, there is an even larger concern due to COVD-19.