UPDATE: 4:56 p.m. Arrowhead Time
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport passed along a memo outlining COVID testing for the NFL.
A memo that just went out outlining COVID-19 testing pic.twitter.com/RnJHRXQOKA
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 20, 2020
With tests now required to be conducted 72 hours apart, the timeline Reid described Monday morning (below) is delayed by two days, as the Chiefs rookies would receive their next test on Thursday.
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid took some time to detail the opening of training camp during Chris Jones’ contract extension Zoom conference call on Monday morning.
Monday marked the report day for Chiefs rookies in Kansas City.
“(Head athletic trainer) Rick Burkholder and (director of team operations) Mitch Reynolds have done a phenomenal job of setting everything up to try to be COVID safe and the best we possibly can,” explained Reid. “That’s where we start. We’re starting with a couple days of testing for the players. They do back-to-back tests and then they’ll actually — from there — work their physical, get their equipment and then head with (vice president of communications) Ted (Crews), do whatever media obligations they potentially have. And there are a couple days for that.”
Reid said that these steps would take the rookies until Thursday, when players could begin lifting and potentially have a team walkthrough. As of this writing, the NFLPA and NFL are still working out the final details of what the preseason will look like (we covered that here). But Reid gave the impression the Chiefs will be ready when the time comes.
“When you guys see the setup, if you have an opportunity to do that, it’s phenomenal,” said Reid. “We’re going to do everything out of the stadium.”
Arrowhead Stadium provides the Chiefs with much more room than the practice facility.
“The way they’ve set it up, we could have a ton of people social distance — more than we’ve had with our football team, and they’ve done that,” Reid added. “They’ve got it all set up with monitors and everything else. Each media room is set up. They’ve split Arrowhead Stadium in half, so the defense is on one side, the offense is on the other side. It was really something to watch form there. And then the testing, the guys — they’re going to be tested often, so it’ll be good that way.”
Reid said that when the Chiefs are not on the field at practice, they will be keeping their social distance, wearing face coverings and washing their hands.
It is not known right now when the team will be able to conduct what could be deemed a normal practice, but Reid confirmed it would be at least 10 days.
“They’ll have another part of a ramp-up that will last a little bit over a week, I think, where you might be able to put these padded shirts they have now — that’s part of the new CBA. You kind of get into the new CBA rules, except it’d be extended a little bit. So that’s what we know at this point. It seems like a pretty solid plan to allow the guys to ramp up and get themselves where they need to be. I think these guys have been working out, working change-of-direction and restriction with the bands... tugs and pulls and all that. So they’ll keep themselves as much injury-free as they can coming into camp. But again, we’ll give them a good ramp up, too.”