NFL Insider Notes: Voluntary Considerations For Coaches, Why Characters’ Concerns Get Bigger Amid COVID-19, More


At the time this is published, there are at least 30 NFL players who have decided to opt out of the 2020 season due to coronavirus-related concerns. That number is sure to increase in the coming week as the exclusion deadline approaches.

Sources I spoke to in the league estimated that one or two players per team would choose not to participate, and it is reasonable to assume that we reached 64 players before the deadline.

But what we haven’t seen, and may not see at all, is an NFL coach who decides not to participate this season.

“Coaches may have concerns but they are like soldiers,” a coaching agent told me.

To be clear, a person’s choice of whether to participate in this NFL season is theirs alone. But there are some obvious reasons why we haven’t yet seen a head coach, coordinator, or assistant “choose not to participate” this season.

There are no $ 150,000 or $ 350,000 waiting for coaches, as there are for these players who have chosen not to participate. The NFL Players Association collectively negotiated for these amounts, the first for voluntary casualties and the second for high-risk players who choose not to play. Coaches are not unionized, so there is no core group to fight for their salary benefits.

Without that incentive (if that’s what you want to call it), it would be financially difficult for the average coach to sit voluntarily for a year. If you have never been a head coach or senior coordinator, chances are you have not generated generational wealth through this profession. In short, like most of us, you don’t have the luxury of not working.

Which teams will have an offensive in 2020? And what will Damien Williams’ opt-out mean for the Chiefs? Ryan Wilson and Tyler Sullivan join host Will Brinson on the Pick Six Podcast to break it all down; Listen below and be sure to subscribe to the daily goodness of the NFL.

Then there is the fear that if you stay out this season, you will never go back in. Landing an NFL coach concert is difficult. Maintaining it is difficult. Finding a new one once you’ve been canned is difficult. Add the fact that among the sources I have spoken to, the general consensus is that there will not be much turnover of public service or coaching staff from 2020 to 2021 because this will be an aberrant year (plus the financial costs of hiring new staff after massive loss of income). Opting for the 2020 season now can put a coach off-side until the 2022 season.

The league has tasked individual teams to do their best to protect players and coaches alike, but the risks remain. Many coaches over 60 are employed throughout the league, including six head coaches.

“There is still nothing,” a training agent texted me Thursday. “You may see some on the way.”

If the situation with an NFL team becomes as troublesome as it is with the Miami Marlins, could it be a scenario where a high-risk coach retires?

GMs should be careful about the type of players signing in the middle of COVID-19

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said it perfectly. “It is a failure, all fail,” he told reporters on Thursday. That’s their way of sending messages to players that if they want a full season, everyone has to do their part to keep themselves, and therefore each other, safe from the coronavirus.

And that’s why CEOs will have to be careful who they sign up for their team during this preseason and in the regular season. Even the dumbest combined interviews fail to realize, “Do you promise not to jeopardize the season by doing something silly during a global pandemic?”

If a player wants to go against the recommendations of almost all reputable healthcare professionals and not wear a mask, that’s something teams should know. If you have, say, questionable opinions about vaccines, that’s something teams should know. And it doesn’t stop there.

If one fails, all fail, there is no reason for a team to bring in a type of loose cannon player. Yes, I am thinking of Antonio Brown, one of the best wide receivers of the 21st century who can still go out and endure a 1,200 yard season. Brown has publicly shown that he has poor judgment. The risk he brings to his facility with his extracurricular activities would far outweigh the reward on the field, because he may not even make it to the field that Sunday with him on his list.

“Character” is and always has been a hazy term in the NFL. But in 2020, a valid concern is when a boy puts his team’s success off the premises at risk for his own selfish, foolish, and / or arrogant reasons.

More players likely to follow Farley

I wanted to follow up on my success at CBS Sports HQ in Virginia Tech CB Caleb Farley’s decision to opt out of the college football season.

Farley is expected to go in the first round of the NFL Draft 2021, so it makes perfect sense that he decided to start training for that eventuality while protecting his health and not playing for free.

A general manager I spoke to recently told me that he expected this kind of decision and expect more. How many and how big names? That is impossible to say, since all these decisions are personal. But just like stars who play mindless bowling, the more they do it, the easier it will be for the next one.

What you are likely to see is that players will go to facilities like EXOS this fall and winter, rather than just the six weeks leading up to the combine. We may see combine testing like never before because of that.

However, a word of warning from the explorers I spoke with. While they can understand why a front-line athlete would take this route (even if they disagree not to play this season), there are likely to be guys who need to improve their games on the field this season and decide to train for next. draft of the year.

The same thing happens every year with the dozens of first-year students who are not recruited and the requirements remain.

Farley doesn’t have to worry about that. You should hear his name at the start of the second round, and he’s probably not the last top 50 prospect to pick this option for this fall.