The Impact of COVID-19
Of course, every aspect of life in our current global climate gets viewed through a different lens: That of COVID-19. With questions over when training camps can start looming, how might the current worldwide health crisis impact how the league schedules games for the 2020 season?
We have already seen one change, as the league announced this week that there would be no international games in the season ahead. But here is something else we might see, something that was referenced a few times earlier in this piece. Facing the prospects of a delay to the season, the league might look to schedule all of the non-conference games at the start of the season, so if they are forced to delay or even cancel the first four weeks of the year, they can do that without impacting the schedule too much. That would allow each team to play their full slate of divisional games as well as tames in the conference, which have more of an impact on tiebreakers in playoff scenarios. If the NFL is forced to cancel games at the start of the year, removing non-conference games from the calendar would have the smallest impact on the league as a whole.
The Season Opener | Thanksgiving Traditions | Primetime Heroes | Strongest Schedules | Weakest Schedules | The Impact of COVID-19