Photo credit: 49ers – Terrell Lloyd 

Less than a week remains before the 49ers have to cut down their roster to 53 players, but with a bevy of injuries, and now, with Fred Warner on the reserve/Covid-19 list, there is still not much certainty for the team before the 1 p.m. deadline on September 5.

Fred Warner’s Covid concern

Due to the NFL’s rules about the reserve/COVID-19 list rules and healthcare/privacy rules, there’s no way to know whether Fred Warner has actually tested positive for COVID-19 or if he’s just been in close contact with someone who had it. When a player does test positive for the virus, they take a point-of-care test, which is done, with results, at the team’s practice site rather than being sent to one of the five labs the NFL uses.

For Warner to return, the following protocols take place:

1. If he did not test positive, he will be monitored for symptoms and tested daily. Three negative tests will have him removed from the list.
2. If he tests positive, but negative on the point of care test at the facility and asymptomatic, he can return to the club facility with increased symptom monitoring and daily point of care testing for 1-8 days.
3. If he tests positive on both the standard daily test and the point of care test, but has no symptoms, he can return once 10 days have passed since a positive test, once five days have passed since the first positive test and two-straight negative point of care tests and the club physician approves his return after consulting with the NFL’s Incident Command System, which oversees coronavirus protocols.
4. If he tests positive on both the standard daily test and point of care test and has symptoms, he can return once 10 days have passed since the first COVID symptoms appeared, at least 72 hours have passed since the last symptoms appeared and the club physician approves his return after consulting with the NFL’s Incident Command System.

A recent change to these rules means that if a player tests positive, they can return to club facilities for a point of care test immediately, rather than waiting the previously mandated 24 hours.

The NFL last night sent to clubs COVID-19 protocols for 2020 training camp and preseason, including this detailed breakdown for handling individuals exposed to someone who tested positive: pic.twitter.com/bX7aQzMZTZ

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 4, 2020

That’s all to say, we will only know by the date of Warner’s return which category he falls into. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said it was a “good reminder” that COVID concerns are still very much real, after describing the 49ers’ facility as something of a sanctuary.

Injury Updates:

• Dre Greenlaw is in concussion protocol. He was out of practice Sunday.
• Javon Kinlaw returned to practice after being out Sunday. There was no update on his absence.
• K’Waun Williams returned to practice for the first time since suffering a calf strain on August 16.
• George Kittle (hamstring tightness) was kept out of practice again, missing his third straight. Shanahan described it as a vet day, with the team being cautious about returning him to the field. He is expected to return later this week, but not on Wednesday.
• Trent Williams was also given a vet day, Shanahan said. He was holding his side after a rep in 1-on-1s on Sunday and briefly went down to the ground to be looked at by a trainer. He will return to practice Wednesday.
• Both Ross Dwelley (foot) and Dee Ford (calf) remain day-to-day.

Arik Armstead remains vocal

In his first press conference this preseason, Arik Armstead said he’d be discussing a new social issue each time he took the podium. First, it was voting; the 49ers have made an effort to get every single player on the roster registered to vote and players, according to a team spokesperson, are working on PSAs to encourage people to vote.

On Monday, Armstead brought up the racial inequality in education, citing studies and a New York Times article which confirm the obvious, that people of color and people in poorer communities have worse access to education and receiver a lower-quality education than their caucasian counterparts. Armstead recited the following passage from the article:

“Schools filled with students of color receive less funding, but employ more inexperienced teachers. Accelerated programs and classes remain less accessible for black and Latino students — and their inability to tap these resources can lead to the further stratification of classes by race.”

There are a number of studies which confirm there is a racial gap in education in the United States and that education is one of the best long-term predictors of youth success in reaching post-secondary education and career achievement.

“I feel all students need and deserve the right to have opportunity to be successful in life,” Armstead said. “And that starts with their education early on. There’s been links between early adolescent education and success in life. So I think we should start there, pour our resources and invest into students opportunities and education. I think, no matter where a student lives or what neighborhood they grew up in, they deserve a chance to be successful in life and have a great education. So that really became important for me a few years ago, and I decided to put a lot of effort towards that.”

Armstead has long been active in providing resources to the greater Sacramento community back home. In 2019, he created the Armstead Academic Project. which works to support students in the Sacramento public school system.

In June of last year, a charity gala for the Project raised more than $100,000, per NBC Sports.

This summer, Armstead’s donated $50,000 to Mercy Housing to acquire 350 Chromebooks and one year of pre-paid internet for students and their families for distance learning. He, along with the Bayside Church in Sacramento raised more than $200,000 to assist distance learning, per ABC.

Armstead has also been part of the committee overseeing the $1 million the 49ers will donate in grant money to causes for social justice, which was announced this summer.

His main focus in education, he said, is literacy, something he’s worked on with the 49ers and his foundation.

“There’s been correlations between reading scores and youth success later in life as well,” Armstead said. “That’s why I’ve done a reading program, the 49ers have done a great job helping me with that and trying to promote reading and making reading cool and fun for students. So I decided to read with them, and alongside of them, and try to promote reading and literacy. I think that’s a major key.”

The root of Armstead’s increased focused on these causes, he said, is a result of maturity and the reality that he’s now a very well-paid man, having signed a five-year, $85 million contract extension this offseason.

“I think it just grows on you as you mature as a player,” Armstead said. “I’m fortunate enough to have a lot more resources, a bigger platform. Physically, a lot more money that I can put back into my community with the contract I have.”