The Baltimore Ravens are not having a great weekend. Not only did they drop to 5-2 after losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, they lost left tackle Ronnie Stanley to a season-ending ankle injury, and now cornerback Marlon Humphrey too.
Humphrey announced via Twitter that he has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, which was confirmed by the Ravens. He’ll enter the COVID-19/Reserve list, isolating from the team until he can return per the NFL’s protocols.
The NFL’s COVID-19 protocols are pretty strict, according to Sporting News’ Tadd Haislop. Humphrey will have to wait 10 days since the initial positive test or five days with two consecutively negative tests if he was asymptomatic. If Humphrey was showing symptoms, he’ll have to wait at least 10 days and 72 hours after he last experienced symptoms.
This could be a far bigger problem when considering Humphrey missed a day of practice last week with an illness. While that doesn’t necessarily mean he had the coronavirus at that time or was contagious, it should be a concern both to Baltimore and Pittsburgh considering Humphrey played all 53 defensive snaps on Sunday.
Humphrey is playing at a Pro Bowl level once again this year, earning a massive new contract at the beginning of the season. Losing Humphrey for even one game would be a major blow to Baltimore’s defense even if they were at full health. But with three other cornerbacks on injured reserve (Tavon Young, Iman Marshall and Anthony Averett), the Ravens are scraping the bottom of the barrel in regard to depth at the position.
