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One of the two New Orleans Saints players designated to the reserve/COVID-19 is already on his way off of it, having twice retested negative for a coronavirus infection: second-year linebacker Kaden Elliss. That leaves veteran long snapper Zach Wood as the only member of the Saints on the reserve list as he awaits the results of his second retest.
Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football first reported that Wood’s initial retest came back negative, and added that Wood will receive the results from his second retest on Saturday. If that is also negative, he will be allowed to rejoin the team.
Wood signed a four-year contract extension with the Saints earlier this summer that makes New Orleans’ special teams situation one of the most stable in the league; with punter Thomas Morstead inked through 2022 and kicker Wil Lutz signed through 2023, all three specialists are under contract for the long haul.
In a normal year, Wood’s early-training camp absence would have been something of an emergency. But the Saints are limited to running strength and conditioning drills at this stage in the rump-up period, per the NFL’s new COVID-19 rules, so the loss of a long snapper won’t destabilize things just yet.
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