In regard to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the United States and the return of sports such as the NFL, much of the emphasis for safety has been on players. And that’s for good reason. Lorenzo Alexander,who announced his retirement in January but remains on the NFL Players Association’s executive committee, gets that.
Alexander said he believes there’s a “shot” football returns this fall. Like many of us, Alexander’s probably holding his breath a bit about that, too. But the recently retired player shed some light on an interesting topic in regard to football’s return.
We’ve already seen that the league expects to do what it can to keep players safe. Social distancing at training camp, less players in the building, deeper practice squads to teams have enough bodies to play.
But what about coaches? There’s no practice squad or backups or second-in-command for some of these jobs and Alexander said he’s concerned about NFL coaches just as much as he is about his former brethren on the field.
“I’m thinking of some of the things that are just unforeseen,” Alexander said via WKBW-TV this week. “A lot of the focus has been on players, and I get that… I also look at coaches.
“You can always replace players and have a practice squad, but imagine a world where three or four coaches go down, what does that look like? Who is going to call plays? Who’s going to be on the sideline making adjustments? It’s not like you’re going to have a ‘practice squad of coaches’ or ‘taxi club’ of coaches.”
Earlier this offseason, Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott discussed how important that depth is going to be in 2020.
“The reality of this year is, what happens if said player comes down with the virus? You need to have depth… We need to make sure the depth is what we need it to be,” McDermott said.
But to Alexander’s point… depth in the coaching staff? The league is currently going back-and-forth on protocol in regard to getting players back into team faculties. Hopefully coaches on game day are being considered here, too.
Maybe during game week the Bills could still have a sick coach virtually meeting with players, but on Sundays? What’s going to happen then? Something for the NFL to consider and a valid point by Alexander.
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