One day it is preseason being cut in half. And the next, Thursday, Adam Schefter reports NFL teams likely won’t bring the typical 90 players to camps when they open at the end of the month.
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
Per Schefter:
One source said he believed it’s likely that teams will go to camp with 80-man rosters, and another source said it’s “definitely not 90.” A third league source said he has “heard lots of discussion about 75 players potentially instead of 90,” especially with the reduction in preseason games and teams not needing as many players for camp as normal.
There also are increasing questions from league sources about whether camp can start on time with the number of coronavirus cases around the country spiking.
The report adds the NFL is considering upping the list of “practice squads” to 16-20 because of COVID-19. This would allow teams to have a deeper reservoir of talent in case they were impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
One plan being further discussed is splitting the roster into two groups and having each practice at a different time, no matter how many players are allowed to report to camp.