Here’s Chiefs receiver Mecole Hardman’s status after landing on COVID-19 list last week
The Chiefs return from a bye this week, but wide receiver Mecole Hardman isn’t among those back at the facility.
Hardman remains on the reserve/COVID-19 list after first appearing on it last week.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Hardman is “feeling good,” but he didn’t offer a timetable on when he might rejoin the team, leaving his status for Sunday’s trip to Las Vegas in doubt.
“He’s got to wait here,” Reid said. “Right now, he’s feeling good, which is a good thing. But yes, he’s on that list.”
Hardman tweeted last week, “I’m good for everyone asking,” and then sought TV show requests now that “I got time on my hands.”
The Chiefs have not confirmed that Hardman tested positive for COVID-19 — Reid said he didn’t know what he was allowed to divulge — but a high-risk contact is required to spend only a minimum of five days on the list. And Monday would qualify as Hardman’s sixth day.
If a player tests positive for coronavirus but is asymptomatic, he must either wait 10 days before returning, or he must test negative on back-to-back days.
If the player tests positive and also has symptoms, the 10-day wait becomes mandatory, and he must also wait at least 24 hours after last experiencing any symptoms, per NFL guidelines updated last month.
In both scenarios, a return to the team requires negative test results and approval by the team physician after consultation with the NFL chief medical officer and experts at the Infection Control Education for Major Sports (ICS).
Those timelines would not necessarily preclude Hardman from missing a game, since the Chiefs were on a bye last week. Hardman first appeared on the reserve/COVID-19 on Nov. 11, and the Chiefs-Raiders are slated to play Nov. 22.
“We are always going to err on the side of keeping people out of team activities until we can go through confirmatory steps,” NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills told the league website last month.
The NFL is dealing with an increase in positive tests, in line with the rest of the country, including Kansas City. In the first week of November, 15 NFL players tested positive, along with 41 other team personnel. The Browns announced another positive test Monday, though head coach Kevin Stefanski refused to say whether that player participated in Sunday’s game against Houston. More than a dozen teams have confronted COVID-19 obstacles in recent weeks.
Hardman, a second-year player, has yet to miss a game in his career. He has 25 catches in nine games, just one shy of last year’s total, with 12 of those coming in the last three weeks when the team played without Sammy Watkins.
Watkins, battling a hamstring injury, is nearing a return. He came back to practice in a limited form ahead of the Week 9 game against the Panthers, but did not play.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Here’s Chiefs receiver Mecole Hardman’s status after landing on COVID-19 list last week."