Jacksonville Jaguars put five players on reserve for COVID-19 exposure

With Nick Foles out of the picture, rookie rookie Gardner Minshew stepped in and stepped up.

The Jacksonville Jaguars is the latest Florida professional sports franchise to see several team players who have contracted COVID-19 or have been exposed to the virus and are in quarantine.

Some key Jaguars players are on that list.

The Jaguars issued a news release late Sunday afternoon that starting quarterback and fan favorite Gardner Minshew is among the team members who is on the list. Minshew is joined on the Jaguar’s coronavirus list by: running back Ryquell Armstead, tight end Charles Jones, wide receiver Michael Walker and safety Andrew Wingard.

Since the infected or exposed players — most who saw substantial playing time in the Jaguars’ 2019 season — have contracted or are quarantined due to the illness, they have technically been put on a “reserve” category that was created by the NFL. The Jaguars said they would not comment on the specific status of the players put on that list as to whether they have contracted coronavirus or have been exposed to it.

“Clubs, club personnel, other players and player-agents are not permitted to disclose a player’s reason for placement on Reserve-COVID-19 or a player’s status with regard to such illness. However, players are permitted to disclose their own medical information,” said the official statement from the Jaguars.

The Jaguars’ announcement comes as Jacksonville has seen a virulent resurgence of coronavirus in the past month, more than tripling the number of infections in that city in July.

The Jacksonville Jaguars had already announced that crowd attendance for regular season games would be limited with only one-fourth stadium capacity for games. That’s about 16,000 people for each home game and attendance would require face masks and social distancing in the stands when the season gets underway in September.

The Miami Marlins had an outbreak of COVID-19 infections as that team returned to Major League Baseball action in the past week. Since the Marlins outbreak, other teams such as the St. Louis Cardinals have seen similar outbreaks. MLB temporarily postponed their season.