PHILADELPHIA -- Eagles coach Doug Pederson has returned to the team's practice facility, 10 days after telling his players that he had contracted the coronavirus, the team said.
Pederson, 52, was asymptomatic. According to NFL protocol, an employee who is asymptomatic must wait 10 days or have two consecutive negative tests over a span of five days before returning.
Pederson informed his players that he had tested positive for coronavirus on Aug. 2 after a second positive test confirmed the diagnosis. He was sent home after testing positive, as was quarterbacks coach/pass game coordinator Press Taylor, who was in close contact with Pederson. Taylor subsequently tested negative and returned after going through the proper protocols.
"I obviously didn't want to miss any time if I didn't have to but I stayed engaged virtually with the team," Pederson said. "I was able to watch the practices and stay up on everything we did and still run the team from my home. I think that's something the offseason taught me, how to do that virtually, but at the same time I was chomping, I was ready to get back here and be out on the grass with the players."
Pederson is the one of three known NFL coaches who have tested positive. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton contracted the virus in March, and Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn told his players by Zoom recently that he had tested positive -- a moment captured on HBO's Hard Knocks.
Pederson described the changes the team has instituted to deal with coronavirus.
"The coaches, we're going to coach in either face shield or masks. That's part of protocol," he said. "We want to definitely protect ourselves and protect our players that way. We can still coach from a distance and get our work done.
"Other than that, you're not going to see a whole lot of wholesale changes -- maybe the amount of people we have out there as far as ballboys, trainers and strength and conditioning staff, those numbers are way down from what we would have in a normal training camp situation -- other than that, there's not a lot of wholesale changes that we're going to make moving forward."