Second-year Patriots tight end Devin Asiasi spent the first nine practices of training camp on the COVID-19 list before being removed on Sunday, when he appeared on the practiced fields behind Gillette Stadium.
But that doesn’t mean the 2020 third-round pick is ready to fully take part in workouts. Asiasi did little on Sunday and, during his pre-practice press conference with the media on Monday, Bill Belichick noted that a player’s return from COVID can be somewhat indirect and unpredictable.
“We’ve had a few players in that category, they are all a little bit different,” Belichick said of the team’s experience with returning COVID players. “This is an injury, not really an injury, but an injury that we’re not really familiar with and everyone is a little bit different. So we’ll just treat him that way. He’s out here. He’s participating. We’ll monitor his progress and just kind of take it, not even day by day I’d say, but monitor it as he goes through practice how he’s doing until we’re sure that he’s ready to go out and be a full participant. I’d say we’re not quite there yet. But I don’t know how that’s going to go. As I said, we’ve dealt with that with a few other players and some have re-acclimated quicker than others. But, again, we just have to stay on top of that and monitor and communicate with them on how they are doing and how the physical excursion and output in practice affects them.”
Watching Asiasi’s return obviously is a medical issue, but also one the coaches such as tight ends coach Nick Caley are aware of.
“It’s really the medical staff, but the position coaches would be aware of it at their position and would, again, I would say just make sure that the player’s in a safe working situation,” Belichick said. “Obviously if he noted something he would call the trainer over. But the trainers are kind of monitoring it, too. As I said we’ve dealt with a few of these and just don’t know how it’s going to go. Have to keep an eye on it. But we wouldn’t put them out here if they hadn’t passed all the tests that have cleared them. But clearing a person and having to play football is two different things.”