Raiders’ QB Derek Carr to report to training camp Thursday

It won’t exactly be the first day anyone anticipated, but Derek Carr will officially open a new chapter on Thursday when he reports to work as the quarterback of the Las Vegas Raiders.

With NFL owners and the players association still working toward a mutually agreeable COVID-19 plan to move forward with the 2020 season, Carr is expected to be at the Raiders’ new headquarters in Henderson on the first day NFL quarterbacks are allowed to report to training camp. After going through an entire offseason in which players were not allowed at team facilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be Carr’s first official workday in his new city.

But it will be a short day as Carr will begin a multi-day COVID-19 screening process that requires two negative test results over a period of 72 hours before he — or any NFL player — is granted access to team facilities. Carr will undergo a COVOD-19 screening and immediately return home for three days before returning to undergo a second test.

Under the league and union’s COVID-19 initial protocols, all players must pass two coronavirus tests over the course of 72 hours upon reporting to camp before moving on to the next phase of the report protocol — which includes being tested every day for at least the first two weeks of camp.

Provided a player’s first test result comes back negative — the expected turnaround for results is 24 hours — he will return three days later for a second test. Should the result again come back negative, players can transition to the next phase, which consists of access to team headquarters, clearance to undergo a standard physical and getting fitted for equipment.

Per the COVID-19 protocol agreement in place between NFL owners and the players union, asymptomatic players that test positive will not be allowed back into the facility until 10 days have passed since the initial positive test, or five days have passed since the initial positive test and they have had two consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart within that five-day period.

In addition, the club’s head team physician must sign off on the return.

In symptomatic cases, clearance to return to the facility is predicated on at least 10 days passing since symptoms first appeared and at least 72 hours passing since the player last experienced symptoms. Clearance from the team physician is also required.

By reporting on the specified report date rather than waiting until the league and the union hammer out an official plan to open the 2020 season, Carr will get a leg up on the screening process and be ready to go when camp opens for the rest of the team on July 28th.

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore onTwitter.