After ‘tough day’ Tyler Lockett better, no negative COVID tests yet. DK Metcalf practices
There could be a silver lining to the Seahawks’ must-win game at the Rams getting postponed.
If it’s possible for this pandemic to have silver linings.
Top wide receiver Tyler Lockett and season rushing leader Alex Collins felt better Friday, one day after they both tested positive for the coronavirus and went on the NFL reserve/COVID-19 list.
“Those guys are OK now. Tyler had a little bit of a...he had a tough day (Thursday). But he’s OK now,” Carroll said following the team’s practice that now will have three more to follow before the Seahawks (5-8) leave Monday to play the Los Angeles Rams (9-4) in a must-win game in Inglewood, California, Tuesday.
“So he’s just waiting out. Those guys are going to try to test back in. We’ll see what happens.”
Carroll said Lockett and Collins had not yet as of mid-afternoon Friday tested negative. That’s to be expected one day after they tested positive.
Had the game stayed as scheduled for Sunday, Lockett and Collins likely would not have played. They would have to have tested negative twice on Saturday morning to get activated off the COVID list by 1 p.m. Saturday, the league deadline for them to play in a Sunday afternoon game.
Now that the NFL and its players’ union decided to postpone Seahawks at Rams to Tuesday at 4 p.m., Lockett and Collins have Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning as chances to test negative. New NFL protocols issued Thursday say positive, vaccinated players can return to play after testing negative twice (including using rapid-result tests) on the same day, beginning 24 hours after they tested positive.
Previously, league protocol for vaccinated players for the 2021 NFL season dictated those two negative tests had to be at least 24 hours apart, and one of them had to be a PCR test that takes longer to process than the rapid-result swabs that read results in 30 minutes or so.
The flip side of the postponement, of course, is the 25 players the Rams had on the COVID list as of Friday also have two more days to test negative multiple times. All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey and star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., to name two on Los Angeles’ COVID list, tested negative early this week. The chances that they test negative twice by game time with the Seahawks are much higher by Monday 1 p.m. than they would have been by Saturday at 1 p.m. for the originally scheduled game.
Also, the Seahawks now have to avoid any more positive COVID cases between now and Tuesday instead of now and Sunday for this Rams game. Carroll said Friday no new players had tested positive.
Carroll was asked if his team, which has had just three confirmed positive COVID cases in the two years of the pandemic, is being penalized for doing the right things to stay relatively COVID free while the Rams, despite an outbreak, benefit by the NFL postponing the game.
“I can’t do anything about that,” Carroll said.
“I just wish nobody was getting sick. Wish everybody the best.”
Carroll credited Lockett and Collins with reporting their symptoms after having tested negative Wednesday. The Seahawks tested Monday and Wednesday. Carroll said he believes his team is the only one to test for COVID-19 twice each week. The NFL standard is once a week.
The coach said he and the team had thought “we had made it over a big, proving moment there” following Wednesday’s tests all coming back negative.
“Symptoms showed up, and our guys did the right thing,” Carroll said of Lockett and Collins. “You know, you get symptoms we are supposed to check it out and test, just in case. And it proved that both those guys tested positive, after the symptoms that they had.”
The team did have an assistant coach (not one of the coordinators, a league source told The News Tribune) and what Carroll termed “a couple” of staff members that work inside the team facility that have had confirmed positive cases Thursday.
Metcalf, Eskridge, Swain practice
The two extra days until the game is also increasing the likelihood DK Metcalf, Dee Eskridge and Freddie Swain play against the Rams.
The banged-up wide receivers practiced Friday, for the first time this week.
So did defensive end Carlos Dunlap and starting guard Gabe Jackson.
All are now pointing to being able to play, especially with the two extra days before the Rams game.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 3:13 PM.
