CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Browns and several other teams are in scramble mode following COVID outbreaks this week.
Defensive end Myles Garrett feels the protocols, and testing cadence this season were inadequate and contributed to the outbreak.
“The lack of testing we’ve done all year I kind of feel has led to this point,” Garrett said. “Only testing one time a week and guys doing their own thing on Monday and Tuesday with their time off, it was kind of a recipe for disaster.”
NFLPA president and Browns center J.C. Tretter had been advocating for daily testing to return since September, but the league decided to stick with once a week, an increase from once every two weeks in training camp.
The Browns had five more players test positive Thursday upping the total to 22 positive COVID tests among players and coaches leaving them shorthanded for Saturday afternoon’s critical matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Those positive tests came following practice after there was confusion over Thursday’s testing cadence frustrating Garrett and exposing the entire team.
“Today, it was it was strange in the way they went about testing or I guess the lack of testing,” Garrett said. “I know today they were saying that we were not going to test, and we were just going to go into the building, even though we might have a couple more guys pop up as positive.
“It almost seemed like we were just ignoring it instead of addressing the issue. We should go ahead and test and then allow in the building but not before you get results, and that is how it should be.”
The Rams, Bears and Washington Football Team are among the other teams dealing with outbreaks this week as over 115 players have tested positive since Monday.
Pro Football Talk reported Thursday evening that the NFLPA was pushing for a postponement of Saturday’s game between the Browns and Raiders and even a pause for a week of the entire league but the NFL has resisted and games will go on as scheduled.
