There are currently three Detroit Lions who were placed on the team’s reserve/COVID-19 list earlier in the week who remain inactive. Based on what head coach Dan Campbell offered in his Friday press conference, it doesn’t sound promising that the Lions will get any of them back for Sunday’s finale against the Green Bay Packers.
The trio of left tackle Taylor Decker, right tackle Penei Sewell and outside linebacker Austin Bryant are all still showing symptoms of COVID-19. By the NFL’s protocols, players must be asymptomatic and test negative before being activated from the reserve list, regardless of vaccination status. Campbell indicated all are still showing symptoms as of Friday morning.
“This will all be – the guys that we have on COVID right now, the three, it will be about the symptoms. How are they? We’ve been checking on them every day and they all have symptoms,” Campbell told reporters via Zoom. “And so, we’ll just have to see how they feel tomorrow. That will be their fifth day, and so they can come in and we can check them out, see where they’re at, see if it’s affected them physically at all and where their mind’s at. If they feel like they can go and they don’t have the symptoms, then we’re good to go. But otherwise, we won’t really know until tomorrow (Saturday) to be honest with you.”
Any of the players could be activated as late as Sunday if they can pass the protocol requirements. If not, the Lions will be missing both their starting offensive tackles and a key pass rusher against the NFC’s top team.