Category: COVID-19

Demario Davis, Ryan Ramczyk put Saints up to 15 players on COVID-19 reserve

Demario Davis, Ryan Ramczyk put Saints up to 15 players on COVID-19 reserve

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Several more New Orleans Saints players have been added to the COVID-19 reserve list, and two of them have earned All-Pro recognition in recent years. Right tackle Ryan Ramzcyk was removed from the injury report on Friday after testing positive for COVID-19, and he’s joined by standout linebacker Demario Davis. Backup running back Dwayne Washington has also been sidelined after entering COVID-19 protocols.

Ramczyk’s been out of action since Week 10 due to a knee injury, but it’s still disappointing to lose the possibility he could play this week. Davis is a serious loss as the defensive signal-caller and one of the team’s most visible leaders. And Washington’s absence piles on another hurdle for the special teams units — four of the six players to see 200-plus snaps in the kicking game this season aren’t available now.

That raises the total of Saints COVID-19 absences this week to 15. Two tight ends (Juwan Johnson and Adam Trautman) entered protocols early this week, and they were followed by nine more players including quarterbacks Taysom Hill and Trevor Siemian. Now we’ve got four more hurdles to overcome, including these three and Pro Bowl special teams ace J.T. Gray.

Chiefs P Tommy Townsend latest to be placed on Reserve/COVID-19 list

The #Chiefs are placing P Tommy Townsend on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, putting their special teams situation in a bad spot for the Week 16 game.

The Kansas City Chiefs have more COVID-19 problems on special teams ahead of their Week 16 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Chiefs P Tommy Townsend is the latest player to be placed on Reserve/COVID-19 list per HC Andy Reid, who confirmed the news during his media availability. His vaccination status will depend on how quickly he’s available to return. Should he be unvaccinated, he’d be ruled out for both Week 16 and Week 17 due to a mandatory 10-day isolation period.

Townsend now joins fellow specialist Harrison Butker on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Butker was already ruled out of the Week 16 game due to his vaccination status.

Suddenly, the Chiefs are down 2-of-3 starters on special teams in a crucial Week 16 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers. If Kansas City wants to keep the No. 1 seed they need to win this game. Should they lose, they’ll be tied with the Tennessee Titans who own the tiebreaker over the Chiefs after the team’s Week 7 loss.

The Chiefs signed Townsend’s brother, Johnny Townsend, to the practice squad in addition to former Panthers P Joe Charlton, who played with new K Elliott Fry at South Carolina. Johnny spent some time on the team’s practice squad last season and Coach Reid feels comfortable should the elder Townsend have to start in place of his younger brother.

“Yeah, that’s why we brought him in,” Reid said of the team’s comfort with Johnny.

It’s been a quick turnaround for players like Townsend and Charlton, along with Fry and LS James Winchester. The group is building chemistry on the fly and making the best out of bad circumstances.

“They had to get a couple of reps in today and we’ll see how that goes,” Reid said. “I have confidence that they’re going to. . . we should be OK.”

The team will likely look to avoid certain special teams situations in Week 16, but the solution might not simply be more fourth-down attempts. While the team is 7-for-12 on fourth down this season, they’re still awaiting word on whether Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill will be available to play. That could play a part in some of those decisions as well.

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Jaguars place 3 players on Reserve/COVID-19 list

Both teams will be dealing with a number of COVID-19 issues on Sunday.

On Thursday, it was announced that the New York Jets were dealing with a number of players out with COVID-19, including starters Alijah Vera-Tucker and Elijah Moore as well as head coach Robert Saleh. However, it seems the Jets won’t be the only team with COVID issues during Sunday’s game at MetLife Stadium.

The Jaguars announced on Friday that three key contributors had been placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list: edge rusher Josh Allen, receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. and right guard Ben Bartch. These are all losses the Jags’ really can’t afford, especially the latter two.

Allen is reportedly unvaccinated, meaning he will not play as he must wait 10 days to return, per NFL protocol. With him out, it will likely mean more reps for second-year player K’Lavon Chaisson, who has mostly been a disappointment this season and has only seen a rep rate of 50% or more once this season (Week 5). The Jags could also activate rookie Jordan Smith for the first time this season.

The vaccination statuses of Shenault and Bartch aren’t clear, but if they are vaccinated, they could theoretically play on Sunday if they are able to test negative twice in a 24-hour period leading up to the game. If they are not able to go, Jacksonville’s receiving depth would be tested even further and likely lead to more playing time for Tavon Austin and Jaydon Mickens. Meanwhile, if Bartch can’t play, Will Richardson is likely to get the start.

This game is likely the Jags’ last winnable game of the season, and the stakes are high, as a win would move the team from the first overall pick to the fourth in the 2022 NFL Draft. Both teams could be very shorthanded, and considering we saw several games postponed last week due to COVID-19, it wouldn’t be out of the question to see that again here.

Report: Saints Pro Bowler J.T. Gray lands on COVID-19 reserve list

Report: Saints Pro Bowler J.T. Gray and three assistant coaches enter COVID-19 protocols

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Another New Orleans Saints player has entered COVID-19 protocols: safety J.T. Gray, per the Times-Picayune | Advocate’s Jeff Duncan. Gray was just named a starter for the 2022 Pro Bowl roster this week, and he’s one of New Orleans’ top coverage players in the kicking game. It’s going to be tough to work without him and other special teams aces on the COVID-19 reserve list like safety Jeff Heath and linebacker Kaden Elliss. These absences add up.

Additionally, the Times-Picayune | Advocate’s Amie Just adds that three assistant coaches will also be unavailable due to COVID-19 against the Miami Dolphins: assistant offensive line coach Zach Strief, defensive assistant Cory Robinson, defensive coaching intern Sterling Moore. It’s not as severe as the outbreak New Orleans dealt with back in Week 2, when a third of the offensive coaching staff were out, but it’s already drawing ugly comparisons.

But the losses to the roster are what’s most concerning. Gray is the twelfth Saints player to land on the COVID-19 reserve list this week and the depth chart is being tested at almost every position group. Losing assistant coaches on top of that make it even more of an uphill battle for New Orleans to try and overcome.

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Report: Chiefs TE Blake Bell to return from Reserve/COVID-19 list

Blake Bell has been activated from the Reserve/COVID-19 list, but it sounds like the two #Chiefs stars are still awaiting activation per a new report.

The Kansas City Chiefs are getting another player back from the Reserve/COVID-19 list on Friday.

According to a report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Chiefs are getting TE Blake Bell back off of the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Bell was placed on the list on Tuesday along with six others on the 53-man roster.

Unfortunately, Rapoport also reports that the team won’t activate Chiefs stars Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, or any other players on the list on Friday. They’ll all have a chance to test negative and return on Christmas Day. They have until 4:00 p.m. ET on Saturday to be activated before they’ll be declared out for the Week 16 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Bell’s return is welcomed news for Kansas City. He’s the most trusted tight end on the roster outside of Kelce and he plays a huge role in the team’s blocking scheme. In a game where Andrew Wylie is slated to start at right tackle against the NFL’s sack leader in T.J. Watt, having Bell in there to help chip, block and slow the pass rusher could be crucial to their gameplan on offense.

His ability as a receiver and a wildcat QB in short-yardage situations shouldn’t be understated either. While Bell hasn’t caught more than one pass in a single game this season, if you go back to 2019, he had multiple games late in the year with two or more receptions. He even caught two passes and a touchdown in the divisional round of the playoffs en route to Super Bowl LIV.

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Malcolm Jenkins, Taysom Hill among 9 Saints entering COVID-19 protocols

Malcolm Jenkins, Taysom Hill and Trevor Siemian among 9 Saints entering COVID-19 protocols

The New Orleans Saints sent a small crowd of players to the COVID-19 reserve list on Thursday, including two of their top three quarterbacks and a starting safety. It’s going to be a very difficult situation for the team to manage ahead of their Week 16 prime-time game with the Miami Dolphins on Monday night.

But that added day could create a buffer for some vaccinated players to clear protocol in returning two negative tests within 48 hours, though any unvaccinated players must sit out a full ten days. Hopefully everyone is only dealing with minor symptoms and can return to health soon.

Still, we shouldn’t expect anyone to return in time for kickoff. Here are the nine players joining tight ends Juwan Johnson and Adam Trautman on COVID-19 reserve:

Latest update on Chiefs’ COVID-19 situation

The latest updates on the #Chiefs’ COVID-19 situation include no new positive tests and DL Chris Jones’ return to action.

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The Kansas City Chiefs continue to get good news as they deal with a COVID-19 outbreak.

For the second consecutive day, the team currently has no new positive test results according to a report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. This might not end up being the final situation, as we found out yesterday when Mike Remmers did go on the Reserve/COVID-19 list on Wednesday. Remmers is also on injured reserve and not part of the 53-man roster, so this could have been an oversight. It’s also possible that Remmers self-reported symptoms and was tested after the initial battery of tests.

In other news, the team continues to return players from the Reserve/COVID-19 list. On Wednesday, WR Josh Gordon and LB Willie Gay Jr. were both officially activated from the Reserve/COVID-19 list. During Thursday’s portion of practice open to the media, DL Chris Jones was spotted back in action and participating, signaling that he has been officially activated from the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Fox 4 Kansas City photographer Don Proctor was among the first to report Jones’ return via his colleague Harold R. Kuntz.

Other’s such as Kansas City Star beat writer Herbie Teope snapped some photos of Jones at practice.

The players currently remaining on the Reserve/COVID-19 list are as follows:

  • WR Gehrig Dieter (PS)
  • CB Charvarius Ward
  • TE Travis Kelce
  • K Harrison Butker
  • WR Tyreek Hill
  • TE Blake Bell
  • CB Rashad Fenton
  • LB Nick Bolton
  • RT Lucas Niang
  • DB Armani Watts
  • OL Kyle Long
  • WR Daurice Fountain (PS)
  • LB Darius Harris (PS)

These players all fall under the NFL’s new COVID-19 return-to-play protocols, meaning they need to receive one negative test result in order to be activated. Each player will need to receive that result before Saturday at 4:00 p.m. CT in order to be activated in time for the game on Sunday. Only one player, K Harrison Butker, has been ruled out due to vaccination status.

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Report: Trevor Siemian the latest Saints player entering COVID-19 protocols

Report: Trevor Siemian the latest Saints player entering COVID-19 protocols, Ian Book to back up Taysom Hill

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This is what we were worried about when the New Orleans Saints began adding players to the COVID-19 reserve list earlier this week. An outbreak of cases sweeping across the NFL has touched New Orleans, with the Times-Picayune | Advocate’s Jeff Duncan reporting that Saints backup quarterback Trevor Siemian is expected to enter league COVID-19 protocols and be unavailable for Monday night’s game with the Miami Dolphins.

That follows the earlier placements of tight ends Juwan Johnson and Adam Trautman on the COVID-19 reserve list, leaving just two tight ends available for the Dolphins game (Nick Vannett on the 53-man roster and Ethan Wolf on the practice squad). It’s a bad time to be shorthanded.

If Siemian is also sidelined, it leaves New Orleans with only one healthy quarterback behind Taysom Hill: rookie draft pick Ian Book, who hasn’t played a down this season. He’s been inactive for all but two games in Weeks 9 and 10. It’s too late in the game to add another passer, so there’s a non-zero chance we see Book hit the field if Hill misses time while managing a couple of different injuries.

But Duncan’s report adds that other Saints players could land on the COVID-19 reserve list, too. It’s something to keep an eye out for in the days leading up to kickoff with Miami.

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Adam Trautman joins Juwan Johnson on Saints COVID-19 reserve list

Adam Trautman joins Juwan Johnson on COVID-19 reserve list, leaving Saints dangerously thin at tight end

That’s not ideal. The New Orleans Saints lost another tight end to the league’s COVID-19 reserve list on Wednesday, sidelining tight end Adam Trautman just days after Juwan Johnson entered COVID-19 protocols. And that’s on top of the previous loss of Garrett Griffin, who was designated to injured reserve for three weeks with a hamstring injury.

It leaves just one healthy tight end on the Saints’ 53-man roster: Nick Vannett. Expect Ethan Wolf to be elevated from the practice squad for Monday night’s game with the Miami Dolphins if neither Trautman nor Johnson receive the green light to play.

If he weren’t starting at quarterback these days, it would make sense for Taysom Hill to spent more minutes lining up at tight end, running routes and throwing blocks. But with Jameis Winston out for the season and Trevor Siemian’s limitations pretty clearly exposed (and the Saints hesitant to even dress Ian Book on game days), Hill will remain under center.

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Chiefs place injured OT Mike Remmers on Reserve/COVID-19 list

#Chiefs OT Mike Remmers, who is on injured reserve with a knee injury, was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list on Wednesday.

Contrary to an earlier report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Kansas City Chiefs did place a player on the Reserve/COVID-19 list on Wednesday, it just wasn’t a player who currently counts against the 53-man roster.

As first reported by ESPN’s Field Yates, the Chiefs placed OT Mike Remmers on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Remmers was already not slated to play for the Chiefs in Week 16 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, as he’s currently on the team’s injured reserve list.

Remmers was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury in mid-November and the last word from Andy Reid on his status was that he was not yet ready to return to action from his injury. He becomes the third offensive linemen to head to the Reserve/COVID-19 list for Kansas City, joining starting RT Lucas Niang and veteran OL Kyle Long.

Remmers will have to isolate and won’t be allowed to rehab his injury at team facilities until he’s cleared from the Reserve/COVID-19 list. A similar situation happened with TE Jody Fortson, who tested positive for the virus o Friday, Dec. 10th and has since been activated off of the Reserve/COVID-19 list.

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