Jaguars activate 7 from reserve/COVID-19 list, Including Josh Allen, Myles Jack

The Jaguars entered today with a staggering 27 players on the team’s reserve/COVID-19 list, including players on both the reserve/injured list and the practice squad. Still, the team is on Jaguars interim HC Darrell Bevell said this morning, indicating that “all communications” from the league have indicated that the game is on.

Today, they were fortunate to get some relief, activating seven players off of the list, including linebacker Myles Jack and defensive end/outside linebacker Josh Allen. The other players activated include running back Travis Etienne (returns to reserve/injured), tight end Luke Farrell, receiver Laviska Shenault, DE/OLB Jordan Smith and LB Damien Wilson

Still, the team has 20 players remaining on the list across all facets of the roster, including the practice squad and the IR list. That list includes four out of the five starters on the team’s offensive line, including center Brandon Linder, left tackle Cam Robinson and guards Ben Bartch and Andrew Norwell.

Bevell made it clear, though, that the team has no plans on sitting rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence simply because the team has some attrition along its offensive line. For now, he’s set to play as he normally would.

Asked specifically if there was a chance that Lawrence wouldn’t suit up on Sunday behind a potentially make-shift offensive line, Bevell was short and to the point, “there’s not.”

The Jaguars will be in a precarious situation all the way up until kickoff basically this weekend to take on the New England Patriots. The team will have the ability to potentially activate more players off of the reserve/COVID-19 list.

The team has until tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 p.m. ET. to get those players activated and ready to go up. But, those players will have to fly without the rest of the team, on a separate plane Sunday morning, Bevell said. Those players are ones that were placed on the list on Tuesday, eligible to come off it technically by Sunday.

For the vaccinated players, they can essentially test out by producing two negative COVID-19 tests 24 hours apart, as was the case with Damien Wilson. For the unvaccinated, they’ll have to quarantine for five days and show no signs of symptoms.

“We just have it on standby to be able to get those guys there if we need to.”

There will be so many unknowns as the team goes through what plenty others have dealt with over the past several weeks, but they’re getting healthy just in time it appears to face off in their second to the last matchup of the season.

Update: Later in the day, the Jaguars placed cornerback Shaquill Griffin on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. The team also announced defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi and defensive quality control coach Patrick Reilly are currently unavailable for Sunday’s game at New England due to NFL-NFLPA COVID-19 protocols. They could return prior to the game.

Additionally, the Jaguars signed punter J.K. Scott to the active roster and safety Bradley McDougald to the practice squad.