NFL OTA’s are gone due to the coronavirus. Minicamps aren’t happening either. That’s no small thing. It means that each team’s players will have gone some seven months without any organized workouts or field work as a team.
Many of the players can work out on their own. Some choose to. Most show up, however, because there are equipment and specialists they don’t have access to on their own.
Players are expected to show up at training camp ready to go as they have no time to waste. Without an offseason, that would be impossible.
For that reason, the NFL is discussing arriving early. Vic Tafur of The Athletic mentioned that likelihood recently, saying teams could add a week to camp.
#Raiders will not have training camp in Napa this summer, as NFL told teams they must hold camps at their team facilities.
Henderson facility on schedule to be completed this month.
Teams to likely add a week at start of camp since offseason workouts wiped out due to pandemic.— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) June 2, 2020
As it stands, rookies, first-year players, and quarterbacks arrive before their veteran teammates for a three-day pre-camp warmup. But this situation is going to require more than that and for all players on the team.
Albert Breer said in his MMQB piece today that the league is discussing not just a week, but as many as three weeks:
The new CBA dictates that teams can report 47 days before their first regular season game (a change from the old 14-day rule), meaning the report date for most teams would be July 28. Meanwhile, the joint committee on health and safety is recommending an acclimation period before camp, given the lack of football activity these guys have had, of at least a week or two (and up to three). The good news is, the new CBA builds in a five-day acclimation period. The bad news is players may need more than that under these unique circumstances. So the league has floated the idea of an earlier report date closer to the middle of July, to give players a better chance to get their feet underneath them.
So, we are looking at training camp starting for the Raiders at their new Henderson facility at least July 21 but as early as July 7.
The Henderson facility is mostly complete, with still some work being done. With the possibility of starting camp just a month from now, they better get on it or they’ll be working around each other.
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