Getty Bruce Arians confirmed on Tuesday that Buccaneers kicker Ryan Succop tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the preseason finale.
A Tampa Bay starter going out to dinner with Tennessee Titans players last week led to the lone positive COVID-19 case among Buccaneers players, head coach Bruce Arians confirmed on Tuesday.
Bucs kicker Ryan Succop will miss the final preseason game on Saturday because of testing positive, Arians said according to ESPN’s Jenna Laine. She reported that Succop, who previously played for the Titans from 2014 to 2019, is vaccinated and that he was “the only one” to catch COVID-19. Backup kicker Jose Borregales will fill in on Saturday at Houston.
Bucs coach Bruce Arians said kicker Ryan Succop went out to dinner indoors with some Titans players and did test positive for COVID-19. He is out this week. He said Succop is the only one. He is vaccinated.
Concerns originally swirled about quarterback Tom Brady’s status because he spent time with Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. Brady and Vrabel played together in New England from 2001 and 2008 and won three Super Bowls together.
Laine shared a photo of Vrabel talking with Brady and Brady’s oldest son, Jack, at practice last week. Vrabel also shared a photo of himself conversing with them as a joke in response to Brady’s joking about Vrabel at a press conference.
Mike Vrabel spent quite a bit of time chatting with Bucs quarterback Tom Brady and his son Jack during joint practices this week. This is from @GeorgeWalkerIV of @Tennessean. Vrabel just announced that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be quarantining.
“I had a sore throat, little bit of an earache, so I went and got tested at the facility,” Vrabel said on Sunday according to ESPN’s Turron Davenport. “I remained in my car until the results were in that I tested positive for COVID … I took the first test and tested positive, then took a second test and tested positive.”
Fortunately for the Bucs, things didn’t look any different on Monday for Brady and company at practice.
“There’s no sign of any COVID-related absences at the Bucs’ indoor practice today,” Greg Auman of The Athletic reported. “Tom Brady and all quarterbacks here as normal.”
There’s no sign of any COVID-related absences at the Bucs’ indoor practice today. Tom Brady and all quarterbacks here as normal.
Arians confirmed as such after Monday’s practice per Auman.
“We’re good. We don’t have anything,” Arians said.
“We’re good. We don’t have anything,” Bruce Arians says when asked if Bucs have any COVID-related problems from Titans coach Mike Vrabel testing positive.
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Bucs Mostly Vaccinated in COVID Response
Tampa began the contact tracing process on Sunday because of Vrabel’s positive test, according to Laine, to discover everything from “high-risk close contacts” by unvaccinated players to “low-risk exposures” she wrote. She noted there is a contact tracing process for vaccinated players, too.
The Bucs are currently in the process of contact tracing. They’ll determine if there are high-risk close contacts (determined by length of time/proximity, only those unvaccinated), close contacts (process is different for vaccinated versus unvaccinated) and low-risk exposures.
The Bucs have had more than 90% of the team vaccinated since August 13, Arians said, according to Pewter Report. Arians then said on Aug. 18 that he hopes to have a higher percentage going into the season.
“Yeah we’re way up there,” Arians said. “By the time we get to 53, I would anticipate being at 100, plus the practice squad has got to be 100. If not, it might be one guy, so we’re in great, great shape.”
It doesn’t mean the Bucs will be immune from catching COVID all season, as was the case for Succop. The CDC reports that of the more than 168 million vaccinated people in the U.S., there have been 9,716 patients with breakthrough cases “who were hospitalized or died.”
Starters to Play First Half at Houston
The Bucs visit the Houston Texans on Saturday for their preseason finale with plans to play the starters for the first half. Arians confirmed the plan after the Titans loss when the starters rested for the whole game.
“Because we’ve got so long before we play. I mean, we can’t go against Dallas, who is really good, and all of a sudden play game speed,” Arians said. “I mean, we’ve got to have some game speed under our belt before we show up against the Cowboys.”
Tampa returns all 22 of its starters from the 2020 Super Bowl team, starting safety Jordan Whitehead remains out from practice due to an undisclosed injury. Whitehead didn’t practice again on Monday and Tuesday according to Auman.
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