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Safety precautions sought by NFL players
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It looks like the 2020 preseason will be scrapped entirely as the NFL has offered the NFLPA to play zero exhibition contests this summer, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. This is an important step as both the owners and the union are trying to figure out every single detail of what will be a very unique 2020 season as the league continues to grapple with COVID-19 related issues.
From the beginning, it has been the NFLPA’s stance not to play preseason games and give players more time on training ground for the regular season, but the league had been reluctant to erase it entirely until now. Previously, the preseason was cut in half from four games, just two. The Monday before this latest report, CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora aired that the NFL had submitted a prior proposal to have just one preseason game. With this proposal now put forward by the NFL, it’s only a matter of time before the NFLPA accepts and we’ll go straight from training camp to the 2020 regular season with zero preseason matchups.
This was a topic of discussion that the players and the NFLPA felt very strong about and it seems that the NFL has listened and taken note. This comes just hours after the NFL and NFLPA agreed on daily testing during the first two weeks of training camp, the last major health and safety issue that still needed to be resolved. That was also another key area of concern among the players, who publicly said so on social media over the weekend. It appears that their voices have been heard by the league and the base for the 2020 season is being established as training camp will begin in a matter of days.
However, a potential impact of the absence of preseason games comes at the expense of undrafted free agents and even some picks from the Day 3 draft. These exposures are generally where the unknowns make a name for themselves and push for a place in the list. With those games out of the window for 2020, it will probably make things a little more difficult to make the opening list. One way the league is helping with that along with COVID-19’s potential case management is that they are proposing to increase practice squads from 12 to 16 players to further expand the roster.
In addition to offering zero preseason games, the NFL also offered a seven-day acclimatization period to an 18-day increase, according to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network. The league also previously offered the option to opt-out of players with a deadline of August 1.
With these major issues now either in the rearview mirror or to be, the NFL and NFLPA have yet to come to an agreement on the financial side of these negotiations. According to reports, in its latest proposal, the NFL suggested that each team cut player costs by $ 40 million in salary cap and / or other benefits in 2020. Meanwhile, the NFLPA has maintained the stance of not wanting the ramifications. economic consequences of the pending loss of income due to the pandemic of hitting players in a single year. Instead, they had suggested a fixed salary cap for 2021 and then smaller bumps against the cap for the next decade (2022-2030).
With the NFL biased in favor of the NFLPA in certain ways like the preseason, it will be interesting to see if those simply ended up being league concessions to get the financial situation they prefer.
