Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid is back in the building at 1 Arrowhead Drive after playing the Los Angeles Chargers on “Thursday Night Football.”
Chiefs players won’t join Reid until Tuesday, so there were no injury updates from the head coach to start the week. He was, however, asked about the players who are currently on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and the potential for their availability against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 16.
As of right now, there have been no new developments with Chris Jones, Willie Gay and Josh Gordon that Reid was aware of. They’re being tested daily, and Reid is hopeful that they’ll each be able to test out of the league’s COVID-19 protocols in time to play in the upcoming game.
“Yeah, well I’m hoping,” Reid told reporters. “I’m hoping that they’re going to be there, but we’ve just got to see how it goes. There’s a matrix of things that you’ve got to work out. That’s where Rick (Burkholder) comes in. I can’t sit here and tell you how all that works right now, but Rick works through everything every day. We’ll see where we’re at. It’s day-to-day as you go with these tests.”
Burkholder, the team’s designated infectious control officer, is currently hard at work deciphering the league’s newly-announced COVID protocols. The team will be meeting to discuss those protocols when the players are back in the building on Tuesday. In order to test out of the COVID protocols, Jones, Gay and Gordon will need consecutive negative tests taken 24 hours apart. That won’t be the case for vaccinated individuals placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list moving forward, though. Under the newly established protocols, they’ll need just one negative test in order to return to the team.
Beyond simply testing out of the protocols, the timing of it all could play a role in Jones, Gay and Gordon’s availability this week. Andy Reid typically doesn’t allow his players to play in a game without getting at least one practice in. That’d mean that Friday is likely the deadline for activation for each of these guys to have a shot to play in the Chiefs’ Week 16 game against the Steelers.
