Three Miami Dolphins put on reserve/COVID-19 list as team opens doors to players
The coronavirus pandemic has now directly impacted the Miami Dolphins.
Three players — long snapper Blake Ferguson, defensive tackle Benito Jones and cornerback Cordrea Tankersley — were placed on the league’s reserve/COVID-19 list Monday.
Those three either tested positive for the illness or have come in close contact with people who have. The first time those who tested positive will be eligible to return to the active roster is in three weeks — just around the time the team will put on pads for contact practices for the first time.
Ferguson is a rookie drafted to be the team’s starting long snapper. Tankersley’s bad luck continues. The former Dolphins third-round pick has not appeared in a game since tearing his ACL in 2018. And Jones is an undrafted rookie out of Mississippi viewed as a long shot to make the team.
Meanwhile, the Dolphins made two additional roster moves Monday — they cut tight end Michael Roberts and claimed ex-Chiefs cornerback Javaris Davis off waivers — to trim their squad to 80 players. Those moves will allow the team to open camp with their full team and not have to work with split squads, per NFL rules.
Davis, a defensive back out of Auburn, had been waived by the Chiefs with a nonfootball injury designation. Roberts became expendable after the Dolphins acquired Bears tight end Adam Shaheen in a trade.
Operating training camp in South Florida during the region’s COVID-19 surge has been alarming to the players union, but the league ultimately determined it was safe to proceed here.
Some good news: One very important Dolphins name — Tua Tagovailoa — appears to be coronavirus-free.
The rookie quarterback was among the first-year Dolphins players to report to training camp Monday, signaling his recent COVID-19 tests came back negative.
NFL rules mandate that all players must test negative multiple times in a 72-hour span before being allowed inside team headquarters.
The Dolphins shared videos on social media Monday of rookies reporting to camp, and Tagovailoa — the star Alabama quarterback — was among those seen walking in the players’ entrance.
Fellow first-round pick Austin Jackson, an offensive lineman out of USC, plus third-day picks Curtis Weaver (defensive end) and Malcolm Perry (running back) were among the others shown reporting to camp.
The Dolphins’ mixed, but mostly good health news stands in contrast to the Miami Marlins, who were forced to cancel their Monday night game against the Orioles after 11 Marlins players and two coaches tested positive for COVID-19 — by far the largest outbreak seen since professional team sports resumed in recent weeks.
Will a similar fate await the NFL? Pro football, like Major League Baseball, decided against holding their seasons in a bubble. So far, MLS and the NBA have had much better success operating in quarantine.
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 5:06 PM.
