Friday’s news on the Miami Dolphins’ COVID-19 situation is better than Thursday’s
Any concerns Thursday that the Miami Dolphins were experiencing a Marlins-like coronavirus outbreak were eased with Friday’s news:
A day after six Dolphins were placed on the NFL’s reserve/COVID-19 list Friday, the number of medically unavailable players shrunk, not grew.
Three more Dolphins fell off IR/COVID-19 Friday, including two who were out of action for one day.
The lesson? The NFL’s policy always errs on the side of caution.
Defensive end Shaq Lawson and safety Brandon Jones have both been cleared for football after passing the necessary coronavirus tests just one day after the Dolphins placed them on IR/COVID-19.
That means neither actually caught coronavirus, but either had a false positive or were in close proximity of someone who had it.
The same goes for defensive tackle Davon Godchaux. Two days after he went on IR/COVID-19, he came off it.
That leaves just five unavailable Dolphins of the 14 who have spent time on the newly formed reserve list: Guards Ereck Flowers and Solomon Kindley, defensive linemen Raekwon Davis and Benito Jones and wide receiver Kirk Merritt.
All but Flowers were placed on reserve/COVID-19 Thursday. Flowers has been on the list since Sunday.
It’s unclear if Flowers, Kindley, Davis, Jones or Merritt actually have coronavirus. The only two Dolphins players who have acknowledged testing positive for the virus are running back Malcolm Perry and linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel. In all 173, NFL players either have the illness or have recovered from it, including 56 who have tested positive since players began reporting for training camp.
The NFLPA reports that, of the 32 teams, the Dolphins by far have the highest local COVID-19 prevalence in their respective home markets.
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 4:28 PM.
