An NFL memo circulated this week informing teams to prepare for in-person offseason programs to return this year. The league indicated meetings will likely remain virtual for the foreseeable future, but this year’s offseason workouts are not expected to be fully virtual like they were in 2020, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets.
As of now, teams can schedule onsite OTAs to begin April 19. This is, however, contingent on no offseason plan being agreed to between the NFL and NFLPA. The union has offered pushback to an onsite offseason returning this year, with Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reporting little progress has been made between the sides on this front.
The NFLPA’s medical staff believes a second virtual offseason should be in the cards, Florio adds, with COVID-19 still impacting the country. The NFL will not mandate players be vaccinated but will encourage them to do so. If teams reach a certain level of vaccination — among players and staff — COVID-related restrictions will be loosened, Pelissero tweets.
Setting aside coronavirus issues, it would benefit rookies to be able to work with teams onsite and even second-year players that did not have that opportunity last year. The NFL implemented daily COVID testing before training camps in 2020, and although the league would plan to amend virus protocols based on teams’ vaccination rate, the memo informed franchises to acquire sufficient testing supplies by April 19 (Twitter link). A resolution on the offseason format should be expected before that date.
Quality of play was awful in 2020 until about week 8. No proper in person workouts and no proper training camp and pre-season games is why. If the NFL hopes to show a good product any time soon, those workouts should be on site.
The people being hurt by no OTAs are rookies and undrafted F/A’s. Those are the guys the union should be looking out for, not the guy being paid tens of $millions – as the team will automatically look out for THEM.
Let the pissing contest begin.