Seahawks Place D.J. Reed, 5 Others On Reserve/COVID-19 List

While the Rams have activated seven players from their COVID list since Friday, the Seahawks are trending in the opposite direction heading into Tuesday's rescheduled contest at SoFi Stadium.

Set to play a rescheduled Week 15 divisional contest against the Rams on Tuesday afternoon, the Seahawks officially have their first COVID-19 outbreak on their hands.

After placing receiver Tyler Lockett and running back Alex Collins on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Thursday, Seattle added six additional players to the restricted list on Sunday. Among them, starting right tackle Brandon Shell and cornerback D.J. Reed now are in danger of not being available to play at SoFi Stadium.

The Seahawks also placed reserve running back Travis Homer, defensive end Kerry Hyder, and practice squad guard Pier-Olivier Lestage and cornerback Michael Jackson on the COVID list.

Per sources, all six players have been vaccinated and tested positive for the virus.

Last week, the Rams placed more than 30 active roster and practice squad players on the COVID-19 list and closed down their facility for several days, creating doubts about their ability to field a team on Sunday. As a result, in part due to the emergence of the omicron variant, the league and NFL Players Association reached an agreement on Friday to postpone the game two days with hopes of providing an opportunity for many of those players to test out of protocols.

With the Browns and Washington Football Team also dealing with outbreaks, the NFL also postponed their games against the Raiders and Eagles to Monday and Tuesday respectively.

Interestingly, the Rams have activated seven players off the COVID-19 list over the past two days, including All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey and receiver Odell Beckham Jr. It's possible several more players will test negative and be activated on Monday as well.

When asked if the Seahawks had spoken with the NFL about the possibility of another postponement if his team had more positive tests leading up to Tuesday, coach Pete Carroll indicated such discussions hadn't taken place.

"No, we haven’t talked about that, not specifically about us having, if you are saying that you get more leverage if we had more positive tests, I don’t know if that’s the case," Carroll said on Friday. "This is really a conversation that is happening with the Players Association and the league. That’s what this discussion is, not as much with the teams as maybe you are thinking.”  

Assuming the NFL doesn't make any additional scheduling changes and both teams don't have multiple positive tests in the next 48 hours, Seattle likely will enter Tuesday's contest without Reed, which would be a major loss for the secondary facing Cooper Kupp and Beckham. If he can't play, Bless Austin would replace him at right cornerback across from Sidney Jones.

As for Shell, the veteran lineman sat out last week's win over the Texans and did not practice at all this week due to a lingering shoulder injury. While two extra days may have helped his chances of playing, Carroll didn't sound overly optimistic about his chances of suiting up on Friday and undrafted rookie Jake Curhan should receive his second consecutive start.

If Homer and Hyder don't have two negative tests by Tuesday, the Seahawks could elevate undrafted rookie running back Josh Johnson and defensive tackle Myles Adams from the practice squad as depth replacements in the backfield and along the defensive line.

While Reed and the five other players added to the COVID-19 list today face a limited window to test negative and be eligible to play on Tuesday, if there's a silver lining for Seattle, Lockett and Collins still have a couple days remaining to recover and test back onto the 53-man roster. The organization will have to keep fingers crossed no other players test positive during that time, however.