Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski tests positive for COVID-19

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, two other coaching staff and two players have tested positive for COVID-19 and will not be available for the AFC game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night if the match stays as planned.

Making the announcement on Tuesday, the Browns said special teams coordinator Mike Priefer will serve as interim head coach.

The Browns closed their training facility on Tuesday for the fifth time in 10 days to conduct contact tracing.

A source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the other coaches who tested positive were a defensive back coach and a tight end coach, and the players’ positions were a wide receiver and an offensive line.

In Sunday’s win over the Steelers in the regular season finals, the Browns had to play without six starters due to COVID-19 protocols, as well as offensive line coaches Bill Callahan and Scott Peters and coach wide receivers Chad O’Shea.

Star cornerback Denzel Ward, tight end Harrison Bryant, linebackers Malcolm Smith and BJ Goodson and goalie Andrew Sendejo were all sidelined from Sunday’s game after testing positive for COVID-19. Nickelback Kevin Johnson was also placed on the reserve / COVID-19 roster a day before the game.

The Browns are playing their first playoff game since 2002 after ending the NFL’s longest playoff drought.

The Steelers opened the day as a 4.5-point consensus favorites over the Browns, but the line moved to Pittsburgh -5.5 following Tuesday morning’s news.

After a series of roster management changes this summer, including an expansion of practice teams to 16, the NFL has made it clear it will not be moving games for competitive reasons. The league kept that commitment, changing games only when it believed that an internal squad epidemic was underway that could lead to new infections and possibly spread to its opponents.

As a result, the Baltimore Ravens lost a Week 12 game to Pittsburgh without quarterback Lamar Jackson, who was among at least 14 players who tested positive during the team’s outbreak. The Denver Broncos were forced to play Week 12 without any of their four quarters, losing to the New Orleans Saints. And the Detroit Lions played Week 16 without interim head coach Darrell Bevell and most of their defensive staff, losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

ESPN’s Kevin Seifert contributed to this report.