Big Red
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- Mar 16, 2019
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The reverberations of COVID-19 hit the Cardinals' roster for the first time on Tuesday when right tackle Marcus Gilbert opted out of the season.
The deadline for most to voluntarily opt out is Thursday, but that certainly won't be the end of the coronavirus impact.
Even though the Cardinals have yet to see a player test positive for COVID-19, coach Kliff Kingsbury believes it's an inevitability.
"At this point I believe it's good fortune," the second-year coach said. "We know we're going to have positive cases at some point. It's just when and not if."
While Kingsbury is pragmatic, he's also big on precautions. As the season moves along, he believes the team's infection rate will correlate to how seriously it follows the safety protocols.
"I feel like the longer we go, the more it's about doing your due diligence and doing what's right, as far as we know, protocol-wise and being where you should be, and trying to avoid situations that you could put yourself at risk," Kingsbury said. "We all have a great appreciation right now around this facility for being able to have a job, for being able to be together and try to pull this thing off. But we also understand it can be taken quickly and I do feel our players understand what their actions will accomplish, and what the wrong actions can tear down. I like where our mindset's at. It's going to take everybody for the entire six, seven months, and I do feel like our team understands that."
Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins said the NFL and the Cardinals have done a good job at reducing the risk of spread through measures like daily testing, mask-wearing and hand-washing.
"You see someone going around with sanitizer spray, spraying down everything that we touch," Hopkins said. "Obviously the NFL has done their best to prepare for this. This is something that is hard to prepare for but I think they're doing the best they can, and obviously each organization is doing a good job, especially here."
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