The Baltimore Ravens are not among the NFL teams reopening their training facilities following their closure due to the coronavirus pandemic
Many NFL teams are heading back today as the league allowed facilities to open on a limited basis. But the Baltimore Ravens will not be one of them.
In a memo released to teams on Friday, obtained by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell laid out the necessary steps for the reopening of training facilities following their closure due in March to the coronavirus pandemic. While limited to only a small number of staff, teams could open their facilities as long as they did so in fitting with local rules. With Maryland’s regulations, Baltimore’s Under Armour Performance Center is considered non-essential and thus remains closed.
But all is not lost, either. With coaches barred and only rehabbing players allowed into the buildings under the restrictions laid out by Goodell, the Ravens aren’t really missing much. Baltimore has been holding virtual meetings, which have been working out well enough.
“My understanding from talking to [Head Coach] John [Harbaugh] and others is that those meetings are going OK,” Ravens president Dick Cass told “The Lounge” podcast. “They wouldn’t be much better if the players were remote and the coaches were in the office rather than in their homes.”
Baltimore has already missed their rookie minicamp, which was set to take place over the first two weeks of May. OTAs, which were scheduled to begin tomorrow, will at least be handled differently if the training facility isn’t open. But the big date circled on the calendar is the start of training camp, which typically begins in mid-July.
While the Ravens are confident training camp will occur, it will take a lot of testing as well as vigilance by the players, coaches, and on-site staff to pull it off. Though training camp is still two months away, it’ll likely look dramatically different than in previous years.
“We believe by the time of training camp, we’ll be able to test players and coaches, and those who meet together a lot, multiple times a week and be able to get results fairly quickly,” Cass said.
“If the infection rate is really low, as I expect it will be by late summer, and we have adequate testing, and people are careful when they leave the building, I think there’s a really good shot that we’ll be OK.”
These are unprecedented times and no one knows completely how things will look a week from now, much less in two more months. But with a cautious plan to return, Baltimore could still adequately prepare for the 2020 season, even if they take a little longer to come back than other teams.
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