6:33pm: Add the Buccaneers to this list. The defending Super Bowl champions will follow the Broncos and Seahawks, with players voting to skip onsite workouts (Twitter link). They will move forward virtually.
6:01pm: Absent an agreement between the NFL and NFLPA on how this offseason will be structured, teams can begin holding voluntary workouts April 19. As of Tuesday, at least two teams are not on track to do so.
Broncos and Seahawks players voted to skip the voluntary portion of this offseason’s workouts — which covers everything except the yet-to-be-scheduled June minicamp — due to COVID-19 concerns.
“With offseason programs starting in less than a week and without adequate protocols in place in order for us players to return safely, we will be exercising our right to not participate in voluntary offseason workouts,” Broncos players said in a statement (Twitter link); Seahawks players’ statement can be read here (Twitter link). “COVID-19 remains a serious threat to our families and to our communities, and it makes no sense for us as players to put ourselves at risk during this dead period.”
[RELATED: NFL Mandates COVID-19 Vaccine For Team Employees]
This comes shortly after NFLPA president J.C. Tretter urged players to boycott OTAs. Broncos union rep Brandon McManus notified Vic Fangio of this decision to begin the offseason virtually Tuesday morning, Troy Renck of Denver7 notes. Thus far, 22 Broncos players have worked out at the team facility this offseason, per several reports, though McManus added most of the players that have done so are rehabbing injuries. Broncos players have not received an outlined plan regarding protocols for an onsite offseason program, according to McManus. Testing is an issue for many players, per ESPN.com’s Jeff Legwold, with workouts going Monday through Thursday and players receiving the other three days off.
The league and the union have spent several weeks negotiating offseason parameters, as the sides did last year, but no deal has been reached. Suspicion exists in NFLPA ranks that the NFL is running out the clock until April 19 to create a scenario where teams can begin holding workouts with no agreement in place, Albert Breer of SI.com notes. Last year, the NFL conducted an entirely virtual offseason. Some onsite work is expected this year, but barring an agreement between the league and the union, the Broncos, Seahawks and perhaps other teams may hold fully virtual offseasons again.
It will be interesting to see how other teams proceed. (Raiders players will discuss how they plan to navigate this issue Wednesday, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore.) Hundreds of players have workout bonuses at stake, and the prospect of certain teams conducting onsite workouts while others meet virtually would create a historically unusual dynamic that could create a potential advantage for certain squads.
Five win teams should take advantage of every opportunity they can.
Attending virtual OTAs, while less effective, is still attending OTAs. I wouldn’t say that this is a win for Tretter or the NFLPA.
I do not see why the NFLPA tries so hard to limit players’ practices and team activities. I know the veterans especially appreciate the time off and lessened contact, but I think players would rather get better as a unit overall. More importantly than that, they end up in better shape long term. A lot of people tried to claim that there were no more injuries caused by missing team activities last year, but that’s just preposterous to suggest. Working on your own as a player is necessary, but working and practicing with your team is how really to get into full football shape and better protect against injury long term.
The union has provided the numbers for reduced injuries and concussions, AK185: 2,716 missed time injuries compared to the average over the previous five years of 3,524 (a reduction of 23%), and 172 concussions vs. a five-year average of 247, a reduction of 30% (the annual average of 46 per pre-season being reduced to zero, of course). Tretter also stated in his 3/31/21 on-line column that heat-related injuries were down 45%. He doesn’t shy away from noting those categories of injuries that did not change thanks to the COVID-related precautions, which just bolsters the honesty of his overall case, if you ask me. Tretter’s statement can be found at link to nflpa.com
A transcript of a press conference the same day featuring Tretter and top union staff at which both the injury issue and the continuing concerns over COVID were addressed can be found at s://nflpaweb.blob.core.windows.net/website/PDFs/Communications/March-31st.pdf
It seems to me that most of the fans are, as usual, taking a laissez faire attitude towards the health and well-being of professional athletes.
Thank you for those numbers. I do have suspicions regarding the source. Not that the data is wrong, but that it lacks context. As you pointed out, the preseason was cancelled, which is acknowledged in the concussion figure, but I feel that those numbers lack context. I could be wrong, of course, but in all honesty we have never ever seen a season like last year, where entire teams would go down with a variety of injuries, like the 9ers or Broncos ( not counting COVID lists).
Concussions also don’t seem to be an injury where being in shape would affect likelihood. Soft tissue injuries seem to be the area with increase. And it seems (again, could be wrong) that ACL and muscle tears and what not were happening extremely frequently last year. Not to mention the quality of play, which certainly was poorer, with missed tackles, dropped passes, and bad blocking plaguing the first entire half of the season.
I don’t think Tretter, the union, or the NFL would ever quote a number that made them look bad, so while I do not fully disbelieve Tretter’s statement, it just seems that his claim that everything simply got better is off.
Unprecedented? You must not have been paying attention to the Vikings in 2016, when our QB1 almost lost his leg, our All-Pro RB1 missed most of the season,and we lost not one, not two, not three, but FOUR offensive tackles to season- or career-ending injuries (not to mention a guard to a brain condition, and a DT to a surgeon’s error). And even if the injuries to the 2020 49ers and Broncos were unprecedented, two major types of injuries were down last year across the league by 23 to 30 percent.
You’re not being fair to Tretter, who did not “claim that everything simply got better.” He noted at least two types of injuries that did not improve last year, instead falling within the averages of the previous five years.
I take Tretter’s claims of unchanged competitive play with a grain of salt, but find the numbers compelling for reducing concussions and missed time injuries, and the concerns over COVID and COVID variants legitimate starting points for negotiations.
One team in 2016 does not prove any sort of precedent, especially considering the fact that three teams at least (Denver, San Francisco, and Philadelphia) had comparable situations this past year all in the same season.
I am being perfectly fair I think to Tretter. He is an intelligent person who has the job description of contradicting the league year round. His job traditionally has been to reduce player workload to satisfy the veterans in the league. It would be naive to ignore that. That does not mean that I trust the league at all, whose loyalty is purely to money.
Calling for a boycott is not a casual response. Tretter is making a serious push (one that likely will be unsuccessful) and deserves a critical look at his case. Both he and the NFL have agendas, and I am unconvinced by his case that serious soft tissue injuries (again, like Achilles and muscle tears) were down last year and I am convinced that a lack of offseason and preseason contributed. The increase in Achilles injuries (much harder to come back from than an ACL) was sharp early in the year. I don’t know how to post links, but searching will lead you to some easily accessible articles. Professional ones, not just Yahoo or Bleacher Report. Fusionsports has a well cited article on it and the differences between the types of injuries sustained.
The OTAs are mostly a waste of time unless you’re a rookie anyway. I’d rather full virtu as l offseason with a normal training camp. Let guys heal, refresh, and get vaccinated before large camps the end of July. Wasn’t really much issue last year in quality of play when the season started.
I don’t know, quality of play was pretty bad the first half of last year. Most of that stuff comes from training camp and practice, though. I agree that OTAs are much more useful for rookies, and I have no problem with virtuals, but I do think that they’re less effective than in person work.