Bruce Arians Says Shaquil Barrett Tested Positive for COVID-19

Barrett is also dealing with a knee injury and will miss Sunday's game.

The COVID-19 issues continue to factor in for the Buccaneers over the final weeks of the regular season. 

Bruce Arians told reporters Friday that the Bucs' leading sack artist, Shaquil Barrett has tested positive for the Coronavirus and will be out for this week's game against the Carolina Panthers.

It was already decided that Barrett would miss the rest of the regular season after injuring his knee in Week 16 against the Panthers, so while the COVID-19 development isn't good news by any means, it has no bearing on Barrett's availability for the 2021 regular season finale. 

Describing Barrett's eventual Sunday absence as such allows the Bucs to call up a practice squad player using a contagious disease elevation, which is unlimited in use, so it would make sense for the Bucs to hold Barrett out and label COVID-19 as the reason in order to take advantage of the elevation. And there's also Barrett testing positive, of course. 

The hope is that Barrett returns for the playoffs and that shouldn't be affected by with his placement on the NFL's reserve/COVID-19 list, either. Barrett is considered vaccinated, therefore he can rejoin the team in a much, much shorter window of time as opposed to unvaccinated players. 

Tampa Bay will be without both of its starting outside linebackers in Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul for the second straight week. It will be up to the trio of Anthony Nelson, Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, and Cam Gil to fuel the Bucs' pass rush at that position, with maybe a little Elijah Ponder sprinkled in, as well.

Barrett currently leads the Bucs with 10.0 sacks after signing a four-year, $68 million contract back in March. He became just the fourth Buccaneer defender in franchise history to record multiple seasons with 10+ sacks (Lee Roy Selmon, Warren Sapp, Simeon Rice). 

Stay tuned to AllBucs for further coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and other NFL news and analysis. Follow along on social media at @SIBuccaneers on Twitter and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sports Illustrated on Facebook.