The Kansas City Chiefs and other NFL teams might have fewer players at their training camps in July as a way to combat the spread of COVID-19 in locker rooms.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Thursday that NFL teams limit roster sizes in camp this year, potentially having only 75 or 80 players per team. This comes following news that the NFL will cut the preseason schedule by two games. Part of the logic behind this decision is that they’ll need fewer players with fewer preseason games. The other part behind the decision is that social distancing guidelines will be difficult to manage with more players.
In an effort to combat COVID-19, NFL teams are likely to bring fewer than the regular 90 players they ordinarily bring to training camp, per league sources. One source is predicting 80 per team, another 75, but no one is expecting 90. More coming up on https://t.co/rDZaVFhcDQ.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 2, 2020
With training camp scheduled less than a month from now, the league and the NFLPA are scrambling to figure out the right number of players each team should bring to training camp. Would this mean the Chiefs would be forced to cut players ahead of September 1 and prior to seeing them play a snap of professional football? That all remains to be seen, but it’d certainly be a tough pill to swallow for the players and the team.
Schefter also says that the NFL is considering splitting rosters into multiple groups and holding practices at different times. This might be difficult for Kansas City as they routinely like to have first, second, and third teams face each other during camp. They’d have to find an alternative strategy to get their guys prepared to face the top competition.
One thing is for certain, the NFL and NFLPA still have a lot to figure out ahead of a training camp that is supposed to be just weeks away for the Chiefs.
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