As the Kansas City Chiefs begin their preparation for Week One of the 2021 NFL season, Head Coach Andy Reid spoke with the media over a Zoom conference call on Monday. In his media presser, Reid quickly discussed the health status of safety Tyrann Mathieu and running backs Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Darrel Williams.
Although he’s optimistic his star safety will be on the field in time for the season opener against Cleveland, Reid said Tyrann Mathieu remains on the league’s reserve/COVID-19 list. Mathieu has been on the list since last Wednesday when he tested positive for coronavirus, despite being vaccinated.
“He’s still in the protocol, so we just have to weigh that out and see where he’s at,” said Reid. “I mean, I’ll know more as we go on.”
Mathieu will be forced to remain on the COVID list until he shows negative results on consecutive tests which will require a few days. The hope is Mathieu returns to the practice field on Wednesday, which will be the best-case scenario of returning to the team for the start of the season.
Kansas City will need its top safety to help keep the weapons on Cleveland’s offense at bay. In 2020, Mathieu accounted for 62 tackles and six interceptions.
Coach Reid also spoke briefly about the injury status of his two starting running backs, Clyde Edwards-Helaire (ankle) and Darrel Williams (concussion), who were injured during the second preseason game against Arizona. Neather played the following week against Minesota.
According to Reid, the Chiefs should have a healthy backfield when they take on the Cleveland Browns on September 12.
“They practiced this past week and did a nice job with it. It looked like they were moving around pretty good, so I think we’ll be OK there.”
