Jordan Reed practices Wednesday, still in concussion protocol

The Washington Redskins are hoping to have Jordan Reed in their lineup for Sunday’s opener against the Philadelphia Eagles, but he is still in concussion protocol.

Jordan Reed had one of the healthiest offseasons he has had in quite some time. For most of training camp and the preseason, Reed was healthy, looked good on the practice field, and appeared to have a legitimate chance to put forth a great season if that injury luck continued.

Unfortunately, it didn’t.

In the third preseason game, Reed’s lone action of the four Redskins non-regular season games, he took a dirty hit from Atlanta Falcons safety Keanu Neal. He was struck directly in the head and while he popped right up after the initial hit, he would later leave the game with concussion-like symptoms. From there, he was placed in NFL concussion protocol and that has made his status for the 2019 season opener a bit murky.

That said, the team did get good news on Wednesday, as Reed returned to the practice field. However, per NBC Sports Mid-Atlantic’s JP Finlay, Jay Gruden said that Reed is still in the protocol and they don’t have a timeline for his return yet.

Thursday will be the key day for determining whether or not Reed will be on the field. But the fact that he returned to practice yesterday coupled with the fact that the Redskins were comfortable only keeping three tight ends on their initial 53-man roster indicates that they are confident that he will return to the field.

If Reed doesn’t pass the test — after all, concussions can be very tricky and unpredictable injuries — the Redskins would likely add a fourth tight end to their roster. They would probably promote JP Holtz, who could’ve made the roster anyway, from the practice squad to have him serve as the third tight end. That would come at the cost of releasing another player, and the prime candidate for that would be the recently signed defensive lineman Treyvon Hester. The team could then re-sign Hester after the game and demote Holtz if Reed is healthy.

Either way, Reed’s health is a key storyline to watch in the upcoming days. If he can get on the field, that should give Case Keenum a nice mismatch weapon to target.