While our world at large has been turned upside down by the novel coronavirus over the past month and some change, the sports world has taken a significant hit — outside of the NFL, of course.
While tournaments have been canceled and seasons have been suspended, the NFL has been able to navigate the change brought on by COVID-19 thus far. Free agency went on without much turbulence, and the NFL Draft is slotted to take place near the end of April as always, with only a few slight changes. In an uncertain world, football has remained a certainty for fans and players alike.
That’s about to change, and young teams like the Washington Redskins are liable to suffer the most from it.
There seems to be no getting around it; the NFL is going to have to act pretty soon. Thus far they’ve been lucky, as many of their offseason events are conducive to being conducted via telephone, allowing them to hold steady and weather the storm. But coming up, that stretch of dealing will be over, and in-person activities will start to be lined up on the schedule chopping blocks. First will come to OTAs and Rookie Camp, neither of which will be able to go one during this social-distancing era. Then comes fall camp, which is slated to begin in mid-July. We may be able to have some things under control, but it’s hard to imagine large teams coming together and getting to work on an offseason program with so much turmoil around them. At this point in time, it seems dangerous to even speculate as to when things will return back to normal.
For the Redskins, this is coming at a highly inopportune time. as they would normally rely on this offseason more than any other to set their culture for the future. With a new coaching staff, a roster flush with new players, young and old, and a big hole to crawl out of, this offseason matters. Players need time to gel with each other, coaches need time to let their message sink in, and competitions need to be battled out.
There are some veteran players on the team that will be able to lead the way with a strong voice in the locker room, and you can rest assured that Ron Rivera is capable of bringing his guys together and convincing them to buy-in. But still, if you were to pick an offseason for the Redskins to not miss, this would be it. The roster is ripe with young talent that just needs reps, and they need time with the rest of the team. There’s a growing chance that that won’t happen.
Though no cancellations have happened yet, they’re coming, and the Redskins will be worse off because of it.
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