The Washington Football Team will play the Philadelphia Eagles in Tuesday’s rescheduled game without Brandon Scherff and seven assistant coaches due to COVID-19. However, there is still time for either or both of their top-two quarterbacks to test out of COVID protocols to play Tuesday.
Taylor Heinicke and Kyle Allen both have until 4:00 PM Eastern Time to test out of protocols and be available to play against the Eagles, according to the Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala.
That’s three hours prior to kickoff. Allen has been on the reserve/COVID-19 list since Dec. 15. Heinicke was added two days later. Both are fully vaccinated.
Under the league’s revised testing protocols, players who are asymptomatic and vaccinated need one negative test or have their cycle threshold number be 35 or greater.
Washington head coach Ron Rivera said on Sunday Heinicke and Allen were “trending up” towards testing out.
“Well, I do know, having seen the numbers, that they’re trending up,” Rivera said per NBC Sports’ Ethan Cadeaux. “That’s a good thing. But this is a tricky thing. It’s a health matter. And, depending on how things go in the next 24-36 hours, we’ll know even more.”
Monday neither were able to be activated. Now, they’ll turn to Tuesday in hopes of one or both being able to play. If not, Washington will have to turn to either Garrett Gilbert, who they signed Friday, or Kyle Shurmur from the practice squad to start.
