The Houston Texans closed their facility Wednesday after a player tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the team announced.
With the Texans on their bye week, the team’s positive test will have no impact on this weekend’s NFL schedule. Texans players were off Wednesday other than undergoing their daily coronavirus testing.
The positive test result was received late Tuesday night and the player isolated while the team and the league performed contact tracing, the Texans said in a written statement. The team’s facility was undergoing a “deep cleaning” Wednesday, according to the Texans.
“We are in close consultation with the NFL, as well as our team of independent doctors and specialists, and will follow their guidance regarding our scheduled bye week operations,” the Texans said in their statement. “The health and safety of our team, as well as our entire staff, are of highest priority.”
Texans guard Max Scharping reportedly tested positive and was being placed on the team’s covid-19 reserve list. That list is for players who test positive and for those found to have been exposed to the virus.
The Texans faced the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. The NFL has installed enhanced coronavirus protocols for those teams with positive tests and those teams exposed to positive cases. But the league also has said it has seen no evidence of on-field transmission of the virus. The Packers are scheduled to play the Minnesota Vikings this Sunday in Green Bay.
The NFL has had minimal coronavirus-related disruptions to its schedule the past two weekends after two weeks of widespread game reschedulings. The league’s new approach of requiring five-day isolations of any players identified as high-risk close contacts to an individual who tests positive seems to aided the NFL to play games as scheduled, while creating additional player-availability issues for affected teams.
OBIT: Jimmy Orr, a sure-handed wide receiver who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Colts after starring at the University of Georgia, has died. He was 85.
Orr passed away Tuesday night. His death was confirmed Wednesday by Edo Smith and Sons Funeral Home in Brunswick, Georgia.
Over 13 NFL seasons, Orr caught 400 passes for 7,914 yards and 66 touchdowns over 149 games. He averaged a whopping 19.8 yards per catch and three times led the league in yards per catch.
SEAHAWKS: Carlos Dunlap made it clear he wanted out of Cincinnati and got his wish.
The Seattle Seahawks hope by getting Dunlap out of Cincinnati, they’ve landed an answer to help solve their underperforming defense.
In dire need of defensive help, the Seahawks acquired Dunlap from the Bengals on Wednesday, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deal. Dunlap was thoroughly unhappy with his situation in Cincinnati, to the point of briefly putting his house for sale on social media last weekend.
The Bengals found a willing buyer in Seattle. The Seahawks have been in desperate need to solve their pass rush issues that have been a key part of a defense that ranks last in the league in yards allowed and passing yards allowed through the first six games of the season. Dunlap, 31, has spent his entire career with the Bengals and was a Pro Bowl selection in 2015 and 2016. He had 46 sacks between 2015-19 and had eight sacks last year for Cincinnati.
BROWNS: Defensive end Myles Garrett, the NFL’s sacks leader, did not practice Wednesday because of an ankle injury.
Coach Kevin Stefanski gave few details about Garrett’s condition, but said the team is being cautious as it prepares for this week’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders. Garrett had two sacks in Sunday’s win over the Cincinnati Bengals and nine sacks this season. He has been a disruptive force in helping the Browns (5-2) to their best start since they opened 1994 at 6-1. He has a sack in six straight games and has four strip-sacks, three of which have been game-swinging plays.
JETS: The New York Jets activated rookie defensive end Jabari Zuniga from injured reserve and he could make his NFL debut Sunday at Kansas City.
Zuniga, a third-round draft pick out of Florida, had been sidelined since training camp with a quadriceps injury. He was designated to return from IR on Oct. 7, so the Jets had to make a decision on him this week. Zuniga could help replace defensive end Kyle Phillips, who was placed on IR on Wednesday with an injured left ankle.
• The New York Jets’ struggling offense will again be in Dowell Loggains’ hands this week.
Coach Adam Gase announced his offensive coordinator will call plays for the second straight game after Loggains oversaw the offense in an 18-10 loss last Sunday to Buffalo.
“We’re going to keep it the same,” Gase said.
The Jets will hope for a better result, though. They got off to a promising start under Loggains against the Bills, scoring 10 points on their first three possessions. But, they failed to do much of anything after that and put up just 4 total yards in the second half.
BEARS: Star receiver Allen Robinson is in the NFL’s concussion protocol, throwing his status for this week’s game against the New Orleans Saints into question.
Robinson was hurt late in Chicago’s lopsided loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night and left the game. Robinson’s face hit the field when he was tackled on a helmet-to-helmet play by safety Nick Scott on a fourth-down catch and an official sent him to the sideline. The Bears (5-2) lost 24-10 and fell out of the NFC North lead.
FALCONS: Defensive end Takk McKinley has been ruled out of Thursday’s game against the Carolina Panthers with a groin injury.
It will mark the fourth game in the past six weeks McKinley has been held out because of the injury. He had one tackle in last week’s 23-22 loss to Detroit but has not practiced this week.
McKinley, a first-round draft pick in 2017, could be a candidate to be traded before Tuesday’s deadline. The Falcons did not pick up McKinley’s fifth-year option before the season.
LIONS: Coach Matt Patricia says newly acquired defensive end Everson Griffen will not be available to practice or play until next week due to NFL’s COVID-19 protocols.
The Lions acquired Griffen from the Dallas Cowboys for a conditional 2021 draft pick on Tuesday night. NFL protocols require players who join a new team to begin testing for six days before they can enter the franchise’s facilities.
COWBOYS: The Dallas Cowboys released defensive tackle Dontari Poe, cutting ties with a veteran expected to play a key role for a disappointing defense now going through a midseason shakeup.
Poe was also the first Dallas player to kneel during the national anthem in protest of issues of racial injustice and police brutality. Owner Jerry Jones has been outspoken against such protests, at one time threatening to bench any Dallas players who did.
Jones softened his stance with the national reckoning over issues of race sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota. Poe was the only Dallas player to kneel in the first seven games.
Poe and defensive back Daryl Worley were released a day after the Cowboys (2-5) traded defensive end Everson Griffen to Detroit for a conditional draft pick in 2021. All three were free agents added during the offseason and are now among five additions that won’t make it to the end of the season in Dallas.
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