The Buffalo Bills are clear of COVID-19 related absences from their roster as of Monday morning. Over the weekend the Bills activated their final player that was on the list, wide receiver Duke Williams.
In a corresponding move, recently signed cornerback Akeem King was released by the Bills to make room for Williams on Buffalo’s roster. As things currently stand, the Bills have 81 players on their roster.
During the current offseason which features the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the NFL created a few new guidelines in their CBA with the players union. First, teams only carry 80 players during the current training camp (81 with roster exempt Christian Wade) and there’s the creation of the Reserve/ COVID-19 list. The designation does not mean a player had tested positive for coronavirus, it could mean they had to quarantine because they were in contact with someone who tested positive.
Regardless, Williams fell into one of those categories and then in order to come off of it, he had to have multiple negative test results in order to join his teammates. Evidently that had happened and the Bills are currently clear of COVID-19 on their roster.
Players will still continue to be tested as training camp rolls on, though. Eventually testing goes from daily testing to every other day as per the agreement between owners and players. At one point, the Bills had as many as five players on the Reserve/ COVID-19 list.
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