A.J. Green Activated from COVID List

Cardinals wide receiver A.J. Green was back on the practice field Thursday morning after being activated from reserve/COVID-19. That left the team with no players on the COVID list after tight end Demetrius Harris was activated Wednesday. 

But, for how long?

Having no one sidelined by the virus or protocols has been a rarity since training camp opened for rookies on July 23. In fact, it began that day when rookie free-agent cornerback Lorenzo Burns tested positive. He is no longer with the team.

It wasn’t until Aug. 8 that the team had their first day without anyone on reserve/COVID-19.

Through Nov. 11, which is 112 days since the opening of camp, there have been only 25 days where no players were sidelined: Aug. 8-10, Sept. 3-9, Sept. 21-28, Oct. 5, Oct. 29-Nov. 2, Nov. 11.

Not only do the Cardinals have the best record in the NFL at 8-1, but they have the most players in the league placed on the reserve list with 22. 

Those players have been on reserve 25 times because wide receiver Andy Isabella, guard Justin Pugh and tight end Darrell Daniels have been on reserve twice, once as high-risk contacts.

To put it in perspective, the 25 trips to reserve has resulted in 218 days on the list with 10 players out for at least 10 days: Pugh 16; Chandler Jones and Burns 14; Corey Peters and Isabella 13; Shaq Calhoun, Rico Gafford, Jordan Phillips and Antoine Wesley 12; and Zach Allen 10.

In addition to Burns, Calhoun and Gafford are not currently with the Cardinals.

Most important is that seven players have missed a combined 12 games: Peters 3; Allen, Jones and Wesley 2; Daniels, Green and Harris 1. The latter trio beat the odds by missing less than 10 days after testing positive.

The Cardinals have also had five coaches miss one game, headlined by head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who wasn’t able to coach in Cleveland, but was cleared on the morning of the team’s game the next week against Houston.

Also missing the game against the Browns was quarterbacks coach Cam Turner. Special-teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers, running backs coach James Saxon and assistant offensive line coach Brian Natkin were unavailable Sunday in San Francisco. Their status for this week is not yet known.