Bills' Cole Beasley, Gabriel Davis reportedly in COVID-19 protocol after close contact

A number of NFL teams are dealing with training camp and preseason game interruptions due to COVID-19 protocols for unvaccinated players, and the Buffalo Bills have joined their ranks.

According to Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News, Bills wide receivers Cole Beasley and Gabriel Davis were both sent home from practice on Tuesday and will be out for the next five days due to close contact with a staffer who tested positive for COVID-19.

Linebackers A.J. Klein and Matt Milano are also reportedly in the same situation as Beasley and Davis, and will have to stay out of the facility for five days after close contact with the same individual.

All four players reportedly tested negative for COVID-19, and if they were vaccinated, that would essentially be the end of the story. According to the NFL-NFLPA COVID-19 health and safety protocols, vaccinated players who test negative after close contact don't have to self isolate, even if the person they came into contact with was symptomatic. As long as they test negative and are asymptomatic, they can continue to practice as long as they keep testing negative and have no symptoms.

It's a lot different for unvaccinated players. When an unvaccinated player has high-risk close contact with someone who has tested positive (which means the player and the positive individual have worked closely together), testing negative once is just the start of the process. High-risk close contacts aren't allowed into the team facility for at least five days, and they have to test negative on each of those days before they can re-enter the building and resume practicing again.

Beasley has been very vocal about his decision to remain unvaccinated, discussing it on social media and at a media conference at the start of training camp. Davis has not commented on his status, but he did post a tweet supporting Beasley back in May, indicating that he agreed with him on his anti-vaccine stance.