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About the Author: Jon Ledyard
After a Wednesday practice that saw the Las Vegas Raiders withhold all five starting offensive linemen and safety Johnathan Abram from the facility following a report that the team had placed starting tackle Trent Brown on the reserve/COVID-19 list, the Raiders were forced to keep all six players out of practice on Thursday as well, according to The Athletic’s Tashan Reed.
The #Raiders entire starting OL and safety Johnathan Abram remain out of practice today as a part of contact tracing protocol following Trent Brown's positive test for COVID-19 earlier this week. They haven't practiced since Monday.
— Tashan Reed (@tashanreed) October 22, 2020
The six Raiders players that have not practiced since Monday include left tackle Kolton Miller, left guard Denzelle Good, center Rodney Hudson, right guard Gabe Jackson, Brown and Abram. According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the NFL and NFLPA are examining the Raiders situation to see if league protocols were properly followed by Las Vegas.
The NFL and NFLPA are reviewing the #Raiders’ recent COVID-19 issues, including a positive test for RT Trent Brown, who they believe hadn’t been consistently wearing his tracking device, and video of offensive linemen hanging out together without masks, per sources.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) October 22, 2020
Las Vegas is coming off a bye week following a 40-32 upset victory over the Kansas City Chiefs the week before, so they had been more absent from the facility than normal heading into this week.
The Reserve/COVID-19 list was created to place a player on there who either tested positive for COVID-19 or has been in close contact with someone who has contracted the virus. Raiders rookie cornerback Damon Arnette tested positive on Monday and was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, but he has been on Injured Reserve. Two days later Brown was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list as well.
The Bucs and Raiders are now slated to play on Sunday afternoon at 4:05 PM, as the league tries to assure that there will be a Sunday Night Football game in case Las Vegas’ situations worsens. The Raiders have already had their bye week, so there is no easy re-scheduling solution if the game has to be postponed significantly.
UPDATE: All six Raiders players have been placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, per ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez. This does not necessarily rule the players out for Sunday’s game, but it does make them less likely to play if the game remains as scheduled.
Confirmed: #Raiders OL and Abram all going on COVID-19 list as they have been deemed HIGH RISK contacts, so they are now ‘quarantined’ for 5 days plus last day of contact, which was Monday. Which means they could conceivably be cleared Sunday morning via a POC test but (more)…
— Paul Gutierrez (@PGutierrezESPN) October 22, 2020
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said that further COVID-19 test results from within the Raiders organization over the next few days will determine if the Week 7 game will remain scheduled for Sunday at 4:05 PM or be moved to Monday or Tuesday night. Right now, the NFL’s plan is to play the game as scheduled on Sunday afternoon.
From TNF First Look: Why not push the #Raiders–#Bucs game to Monday or Tuesday? Here 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/k6FDFuMLA9
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 22, 2020
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