NFL teams have recently begun to open team facilities but not yet to players in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. All of the offseason for players has been virtual. The Arizona Cardinals have held their OTAs in video meetings as positions and as a team.
That could be changing soon and some believe players could be back in facilities for minicamp on the field by the end of June.
Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson would do it differently.
He explained how he would do it in a video conference with reporters.
“If I had a choice or an opinion to give I would say just treat it like the lockout year,” he said, referring to his rookie year in 2011.
“It doesn’t really make sense to come back in June as much as I would love to be back,” he said.
He believes the league should end the offseason now and not try to get players on the field until July, although he would still give teams a minicamp before training camp, like it was in 2011 after the lockout ended.
“Have the teams, instead of starting that last week in July, start mid-to-early July, giving the guys a kind of OTA/minicamp feel and then go into training camp and hopefully get the season started,” he said.
Based on the Cardinals’ preseason opener on August 15, they would report for training camp July 31. In Peterson’s plan, they could come back for a week of minicamp around July 20.
He is one player who will need to be extra careful because he is diabetic, putting him more at risk for complications with COVID-19 and because he has two small children at home.
“I won’t have a problem returning back if all the numbers are showing the numbers are going down and they’re giving us the proper protocol,” he explained, noting potential temperature checks, testing players and perhaps even wearing masks.
“If I feel comfortable enough with those protocols and I feel that it’s the safest thing possible for us to come back to work, I’m all in,” he said. “But if it’s not, obviously we all would have to make a very smart decision.”
He wants the season to start on time and to play. He just wants one thing clear.
“We definitely, definitely, definitely need to be smart if they do allow us to come back into the building.”
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Ep. 267
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Ep. 266
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