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Here’s some expected good news: New Orleans Saints long snapper Zach Wood retested negative for COVID-19 again, his second such result after being designated to the new reserve/COVID-19 list earlier this week. News of Wood’s successful retest was first reported by Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football and confirmed by Katherine Terrell of The Athletic.
This means that Wood is in the clear to rejoin the Saints at their Metairie practice facility, once he’s formally activated in a filing with the league office. Because the NFL’s new COVID-19 rules and regulations limit teams to strength and conditioning exercises at this stage of training camp, the Saints likely weren’t disrupted much by having their only long snapper out of the lineup for a few days.
Still, they’ll be happy to get Wood back in the fold. He’s a cornerstone of the special teams unit, sign through 2023 along with kicker Wil Lutz; punter Thomas Morstead’s contract runs through 2022. That sort of stability has to be appreciated.
The Saints have come a long way from their tumultuous 2017 training camp, when they auditioned three different long snappers (Justin Drescher, Thomas Gafford, and Chase Dominguez) and traded for a fourth in longtime Philadelphia Eagles specialist Jon Dorenbos — whose entry physical revealed a life-threatening heart condition. Wood flew into town for a last-minute tryout two days before the season opener, won the job, and has quietly held it down ever since. Here’s hoping for more nonchalant success (and good health) for him.
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