Jets players, staff test negative for COVID-19 ahead of Cardinals game

The New York Jets announced Friday evening that every player, coach and team personnel had tested negative for the coronavirus.

Game on.

Barring any change over the next two days, the Arizona Cardinals’ Week 5 game against the Jets will take place.

ESPN’s Rich Cimini had reported that a single Jets player tested positive and had been re-tested. The offensive players for New York were also re-tested because they were believed to have been in close contact with the person who initially tested positive, adds Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News.

Even with the presumed positive test, the Cardinals continued prep for a 10 a.m. Sunday kickoff at MetLife Stadium as planned. They practiced before taking a charter flight Friday at 3 p.m. to New Jersey.

Statement from the New York Jets. pic.twitter.com/J6qzUeFn7r

— New York Jets (@nyjets) October 9, 2020

Cardinals safety Budda Baker and offensive tackle D.J. Humphries each said Friday morning that they were locked in on preparation for the Jets and didn’t yet have time to consider whether the game would be postponed.

Head coach Kliff Kingsbury, however, admitted the news hit him a certain way because Arizona is anxious to get back on the field after a disappointing 31-21 loss to the Carolina Panthers last Sunday.

“I think this week particularly, all of us want to get back on the field,” Kingsbury said. “We were champing at the bit to get back after it, so when you hear that (news of a positive test) initially it’s like, ‘Oh, no.’

“We want to get back out there. And then you settle in and realize you can only control what you can control.”

The game remains scheduled to take place.

“We look forward to our game this Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals,” the Jets said in the statement.

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