Kitchens to call plays Sunday after Garrett tests positive for COVID-19

Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and must isolate for 10 days due to the NFL’s protocols.

So head coach Joe Judge is tabbing tight ends coach Freddie Kitchens to call plays against his former Cleveland Browns team on “Sunday Night Football.”

Only in 2020.

The Giants canceled Thursday’s practice as a precautionary measure, but Judge said the Giants (5-8) have prepared for this possibility all year, so he doesn’t want to hear excuses.

Garrett, 54, continues to participate in all meetings virtually. He can’t call the plays on game day, though, which sets up the ultimate revenge game for Kitchens, whom the Browns fired as their head coach last December after just one season.

“We always put an emphasis on thriving in adversity. It’s adapt or die,” Judge said Thursday, quoting one of Bill Belichick’s favorite phrases in New England .“We’ ve built in opportunities through training camp and practices this season where different coaches have hadtocall plays for this exact situation. This is something we’ve prepared for, and this is not unique in the league this year. Youhave to make sure you don’t lock your knees and you keep moving.”

The Giants were alerted of Garrett’s positive result on Wednesday night. The lab re-ran the sample from Garrett’s Wednesday morning test to confirm it as positive.

Fortunately, the Giants and the NFL determined through contact tracing that there were no close contacts or high-risk contacts to Garrett, even though Garrett was in the building and onthe practice field Wednesday.

“Immediately we made sure all the coaches that were in the building became isolated in their offices,” said Judge. “We did an immediate tracker on the tracings through the devices. We found out who was at-risk, who wasn’t. We were very fortunate to find out we had no high risks, and we had almost no minimal contacts, as well.

“There were obviously a number of guys who may have had 10 seconds here 30 seconds there, but there was nothing cumulative enough to put them on that list or personnel register to be isolated from the team. So we’re very fortunate.”