85 percent of Dolphins, Saints players fully vaccinated or in the process

[The Dolphin]

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Saints head coach Sean Payton said recently that he is confident that the team would reach the threshold of 85 percent of players fully vaccinated and a report on Thursday indicates he had good reason to feel that way.

Albert Breer of SI.com reports and PFT has confirmed that the Saints are one of two teams that have 85 percent of their players either fully vaccinated or on the way to reaching that status. The Dolphins are the other team in that category.

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said this week that he didn’t know the exact percentage of the team’s players that have been vaccinated, but said “what I understand we’re tops in the league in terms of this process.” Based on Thursday’s report, the Steelers wouldn’t be at the very top of the list but word this week was that there are three teams with 70 or more players with at least one dose of the vaccine.

Teams that have 85 percent of their players fully vaccinated are expected to have relaxed protocols this summer and during the season, although the full nature of those relaxations have not been announced. The league did announce that there will be much greater restrictions on unvaccinated players than their vaccinated brethren this week.