The NFL’s process to open up team facilities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has been deliberate. The league, for competitive balance purposes, has held teams off from returning in full force to their facilities until it was feasible for all 32 franchises to do so at the same time — but that time has come (although the San Francisco 49ers are still not eligible to return coaches to the facility). Players themselves will not be involved in the latest chapter of re-opening, but the NFL sent out a league memo yesterday highlighting that coaches are now eligible to return to the facility.
The NFL has informed teams that, effective tomorrow:
* Coaches are permitted to return to practice facilities
* Only players receiving treatment are permitted to be at the facility, as has been the case
* The maximum number of people at facilities is now up to 100 people— Field Yates (@FieldYates) June 4, 2020
For Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, the news came right before a surprise meeting with the South Florida media yesterday. When asked about the NFL’s decision to re-open the team facilities for coaches, Flores was quick to point out that the team’s technical staff before suggesting that the team will meet to decide how to best proceed from here.
“We’ve got meetings with the players tomorrow (and) everyone is set up at their homes. I imagine it would be hard to – we would hate to have a glitch with the players because we want to go back into the office. Those are the things we’ll talk about as a staff with our video department, with our IT department, with the coaches. They all do a great job. If you didn’t have respect or admiration for your IT or video departments during this whole situation, then you do now,” said Flores.
“Our guys have done a great job. But we’ll talk about that this afternoon as a staff. As far as how this has gone with the players, I think the Zoom meetings have been good. We’re making the best of the situation . . . I wish we had our hands on them, but that’s out of our hands, as well.”
So while the Dolphins are eligible to bring their coaches back to the facility at this point, it seems as though the team will look for the right break in the meetings schedule to do so in an effort to avoid the current routine as much as possible. With players still not eligible to come to facilities other than for rehab treatment, the Dolphins’ ability to meet with players will not change in the coming days — more Zoom calls lie ahead; so there’s no rush to bring coaches back just for the sake of having them on site.