Buffalo Bills defensive backs Siran Neal and Dane Jackson were both placed on team's reserve/COVID-19 list on Thursday, bringing the total number to five players who have been placed on the list. Neal, a special teams standout and backup defensive back, is going into his third season, while Jackson was a seventh round draft pick this year out of Pittsburgh.
In addition to Neal and Jackson, the team had already placed wide receiver Duke Williams, defensive tackle Vincent Taylor, and undrafted rookie cornerback Ike Brown on the reserve/COVID-19 list. All players on the list can return to the team as soon as they pass the league's testing protocols. In the meantime, they will not count against the team's active roster, which now stands at 80 players, not counting these five.
While being placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list can mean that a player either tested positive or was in close contact with someone who did, the Bills confirmed to ESPN that five players have tested positive, and provided the following statement:
"As we were informed by medical experts as training camp opened, we expected to have positive tests for COVID. With five since the beginning of the testing period last Tuesday, we decided to take a disciplined, proactive and preventative approach to hopefully eliminate additional cases within our team."
According to ESPN, Neal's test was first negative, then positive.
League source tells me Bills DB Siran Neal's first test on Tuesday came back negative. His test yesterday came back positive.He's asymptomatic and isolating while awaiting the results of a third test to see if there was a false positive
— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) July 30, 2020Follow me on Twitter: @SalSports
