If this can happen, I'm all for it. Coaches will have to rest players or face being ravaged by injuries come playoff time. That's on the coaches, and the ones who fail to do it during the season, will be weeded out in the playoffs.The NFL season is currently set to continue without interruption, although the COVID-19 pandemic may have some say in that before September rolls around and the NFL is ready to kickoff their 101st season. With this much notice ahead of the potential start to the season, the league has been reportedly hard at work to secure contingency plans and help the league go off with as little interruption as possible. And now, thanks to a report from John Ourand and Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal, we have some idea of what exactly that contingency plan might look like.
According to the report, one potential backup plan for the league’s schedule would involve a mid-October kickoff, a season that runs with no bye weeks and culminates with a late February Super Bowl — hardly the expanded schedule that NFL fans have come to know and love. But trying times call for compromise and should this be the biggest impact to the NFL in 2020, the league will have been spared the brunt of the impact — unlike Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association, all of which have seen their seasons thrown on ice and interrupted by lockdowns across the country.
Hopefully the current climate across the country will be able to stabilize and all will be able to return to something the more closely resembles “normalcy” — but the timetable for such a shift is still something that is hard to grasp. As such, the NFL is doing what it can to be ready whenever that time comes. With the NFL Draft having gone off without a hitch, the league is positioned to have another extended window before having to make any significant alterations.
Only time will provide the clarity needed to determine what those actions will be.
https://dolphinswire.usatoday.com/2...vid-19-backup-schedule-includes-no-bye-weeks/
Every CBA the players whine about playing too many games, and the season being too long, and bye weeks needed just to heal up--all of which are valid concerns. But, in a game where the players pick up a game check only on game days ... they've re-prioritized trying to get all of those regular season games on the schedule--which makes sense. At least both management and players are on the same page with this one ... keep the revenue flowing and keep the pie large.
As for the NFL, I'd expect there to be an extremely shortened pre-season. Skip all the mini-camps etc., and start with a 2 week preseason, maybe 2 preseason games if any at all, and BAM, regular season begins. This might lead to a shortened season if mid-October proves too ambitious, but however it shakes out, this rookie class is getting the shaft. No time to teach you fellas, either know it or sit and watch. I'm expecting a LOT of sit and watch from our rookie class. Maybe guys like Strowbridge, Kindley and the longsnapper make it into the rotation, but for the most of the spots it will be veterans. Tua, sits, Jackson sits, Igbinoghene sits until injuries crop up. The loss of a preseason is going to seriously curtail rookie development.