Saturday morning brought news that a player on the Bears’ practice squad tested positive for COVID-19. A few hours later delivered news the team moved rookie offensive lineman Badara Traore from the practice squad to the reserve/COVID-19 list.
The Bears played Thursday night, beating the Buccaneers, but practice squad players are not allowed on the sideline.
Traore is the team’s first player placed on the COVID-19 list since the season started. The last time the Bears utilized the list was during training camp in early August.
Electronic bracelets players wear inside Halas Hall should allow the Bears to determine with whom Traore has had close interactions, though the contact tracers are not 100 percent accurate. Saints fullback Michael Burton had a false positive last week, but before re-testing determined it was a false positive, four players not identified by the bracelets were sitting near Burton on the team plane.
Traore signed with the Bears on May 7 as an undrafted free agent from LSU.