Midweek injury and COVID-19 roundup after latest updates

The Washington Football Team will get another crack at a division rival this weekend, as they’ll lock horns with the 6-7 Philadelphia Eagles in a game that’ll have colossal implications in the NFC playoff picture.

At full-strength, we wouldn’t think twice about picking Washington to come out on top, even in the unfriendly confines of Lincoln Financial Field.

However, Washington’s roster is currently in disarray thanks to a combination of injuries, which have ravaged the team all year, and a COVID-19 outbreak that has rocked the NFL over the last couple days.

There’s a lot of updates to get to. Who knows? At the rate players around the league are landing on the COVID list, more news could break as we fill you in. But for now, let’s start with a rather puzzling injury update.

On Tuesday, further testing revealed that Logan Thomas did in fact suffer a torn ACL as Washington initially feared after Week 13.

Here are all the latest injury and COVID-19 updates concerning the Washington Football Team before Week 15.

Are you serious?

This report marks the third time in the last 10 days that the status of Thomas’ knee has flip-flopped. First, it was feared he tore the ACL. Then, his MRI indicated it wasn’t a serious injury. Now, we have confirmation the ligament is torn.

The see-sawing isn’t a huge deal, but maybe next time wait until further tests are conducted before giving fans false hope? Anyway, let’s get into the injuries that Washington is looking at ahead of Week 15.

Terry McLaurin is still in concussion protocol after he took a hard fall on a Taylor Heinicke deep ball against Dallas. The star wideout was working off on the side field with trainers at Wednesday’s practice.

Speaking of Heinicke, his knee is feeling “sore” but the expectation is he’ll be under enter on Sunday. Elsewhere Curtis Samuel, JD McKissic, and Keith Ismael weren’t spotted, while Sam Cosmi was designated to return to practice, opening the 21-day window for the rookie to be activated off injured reserve.

OK, now onto the COVID side of things.

On Monday, Jonathan Allen (!), William Bradley-King, David Mayo and Temmarick Hemningway joined Washington’s ever-growing COVID list, which featured Montez Sweat, Casey Toohill, Khaleke Hudson and James Smith-Williams.

Notice the common denominator there? Almost all of those players are defensive ends, meaning Washington is faced with the possibility of playing without their top four DEs for the second straight game.

Bad timing would be an understatement.

In normal circumstances, Washington would be able to get by without Allen, the team’s player of the season thus far. However, there’s only so much Daron Payne can do by his lonesome along the interior to make up for the lack of production coming from the edge right now.

Allen is vaccinated, so he could clear protocols before Sunday. Since the 26-year-old star tested positive, however, he faces an uphill battle, as he must produce two negative tests at least 24 hours apart.

Unvaccinated players, on the other hand, include a mandatory 10-day quarantine period after a positive test. That’s where Montez Sweat, who’s been isolating away from the team after he tested positive last week, comes into the play.

The standout edge rusher could return on Saturday with a negative test, so fans should be crossing their fingers.

Because it pours when it rains in Landover, Kendall Fuller and Tim Settle joined their teammates on the COVID shelf on Tuesday. Per reports, Fuller is NOT vaccinated, so he faces a mandatory 10-day isolation.

As a result, Fuller won’t be available for Sunday, which is brutal for a Washington defense that’s running thin on bodies. Over the last six games, Fuller owns a 76.9 coverage grade from PFF, one of the best marks among all CBs.

It’s also been reported that Matt Ioannidis and Kyle Allen will land on the COVID list, which puts their status’ for Sunday in question, if not doubtful. Washington better hope Heinicke is healthy. If not, they’d be looking at starting practice squad QB Kyle Shurmur against the Eagles.

Joining Ioannidis and Allen on the shelf is Darrick Forrest, Cam Sims, Sammis Reyes, and Cornelius Lucas. Here’s the (latest) updated version of the WFT’s situation as of Wednesday afternoon.

The entire NFL is getting hit hard by COVID this week. On Monday alone, a grand total of 36 players tested positive, marking the highest number since that list was created before the 2020 season.

That number spiked to a whopping 75 on Tuesday.

Washington also had a Tier 3 employee who had limited contact with members of the organization test positive for the Omicron variant. It was the first known case of the variant in the NFL.

Per the league rulebook, Tier 3 employees can be transportation providers, field managers, in-house media members and operational workers, etc. In other words, no players, coaching staff members or team trainers, so it looks like the team will avoid having to shut down its facility and work virtually.

What a disaster beginning to the week for Washington. Let’s hope the situation clears up as we move closer to the weekend, because in its current state, this roster would be hard-pressed to beat the Eagles on Sunday.