The Browns announced coach Kevin Stefanski has tested positive for COVID-19 along with two additional members of his staff and two players.
The others who learned Tuesday morning they tested positive for the virus are three-time Pro Bowl left guard Joel Bitonio, wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge, tight ends coach Drew Petzing and defensive passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach Jeff Howard.
None of them will be able to join the Browns (11-5) at Heinz Field when the team visits the Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4) for an AFC wild-card playoff game at 8:15 p.m. Sunday.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said there is no change to the game's status despite the Browns' COVID-19 situation.
Special teams coordinator Mike Priefer is the acting head coach with Stefanski out, the team announced. Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt will take on the play-calling duties Stefanski normally handles, a source said.
The bombshell news of five positive cases came on the heels of the Browns clinching their first playoff berth since 2002 with Sunday's 24-22 win over the Steelers.
Hired by the Browns on Jan. 12, 2020, Stefanski has been a smashing success in his first season as NFL head coach. The Browns have their most wins in a season during the expansion era, which began in 1999. And Stefanski has the most victories by a first-year Browns head coach since Paul Brown won 12 games in 1946, the team's inaugural season.
A source said Stefanski was feeling fine Tuesday morning and will work from home this week to help prepare the Browns for their first playoff game in 18 years.
A native of Northeast Ohio, Priefer is in his second season with the Browns. When he was the special teams coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, he served as their interim head coach for a game on Dec. 1, 2016, after Mike Zimmer had emergency eye surgery. The Vikings lost 17-15 to the Dallas Cowboys. At the time, Stefanski was the Vikings' running backs coach.
“Obviously, I know very little about Coach Priefer in terms of global decision making as it pertains to being a head coach," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said early Tuesday afternoon during a news conference. "But I'm sure that they're going to disperse many of those responsibilities. Sure, he'll be the guy acting as head coach on the sideline and making decisions pertaining to challenges and things of that nature. But I imagine behind the scenes that they're going to disperse Coach Stefanski's responsibilities.
"So it's not just Coach Priefer. And so I'm not going to spend a lot of time worrying about that. I do know Coach Stefanski and do have a relationship with him, but that doesn't assure you of anything from a preparation standpoint. This is a small fraternity — NFL coaching. We know a lot of guys week in and week out.”
A second-round draft pick in 2014, Bitonio is the longest-tenured member of the team and one of just three Browns players still with the franchise who endured its 1-31 stretch from 2016-17.
"Nothing could stop what God has planned for us," Browns linebacker Mack Wilson tweeted. "Prayers to our Coaches and teammates. We all we got!"
The Browns also shut down their headquarters in Berea on Tuesday morning for contact tracing.
If there are high-risk close contacts identified as a result of the Browns' most recent COVID-19 cases, those individuals would be required to stay away from the club for five days from their last exposure. That means any close contacts would still be eligible to return in time to participate in Sunday's game, provided they continue to test negative.
The Browns had three coaches and six players who were forced to sit out this past weekend against the Steelers because of COVID-19.
They are cornerbacks Denzel Ward and Kevin Johnson, linebackers B.J. Goodson and Malcolm Smith, free safety Andrew Sendejo and rookie tight end Harrison Bryant, offensive line coach Bill Callahan, passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach Chad O'Shea and assistant offensive line coach Scott Peters.
The Browns could get some of them back this week.
Genomic sequencing conducted on the Browns' positive test results from last week showed three different strains of the virus among the players and coaches, so the NFL's medical experts believe the cases were the results of community spread and not transmission within the team's Berea headquarters, a source confirmed. The most recent positive cases will undergo genomic sequencing, too.
The Browns had positive cases emerge Saturday, but they didn't have any Sunday and Monday. Then Tuesday's round of results changed everything.
“We have daily, continual reminders of how fragile these circumstances are," Tomlin said. "Every morning at 6 a.m., I am looking at my phone waiting for verification of the previous day's test results. Are we in the clear or are we not and what necessary adjustments need to be made, what investigations, if any, need to be made? That has been our life, and not only ours here at Pittsburgh, but ours collectively as members of the National Football League since July.”
Three Steelers players sat out Sunday after landing on the COVID-19 list Saturday: cornerback Joe Haden, tight end Eric Ebron and linebacker Cassius Marsh.
Asked about the most recent testing among the Steelers, Tomlin said Tuesday "was a good morning."
Tomlin added he doesn't have major concerns about his team just playing the Browns.
"I have complete confidence in the protocol outlined by the NFL," he said. "We work hard to adhere to it, and I believe if we do that, we’ll minimize risk. And so that’s my mentality regarding it, and so I won’t spend a lot of time worrying about those components."
