Who else will opt for 2020?


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On Friday night, shortly after the NFL and the NFL Players Association finalized their deal for professional soccer in a pandemic, Chiefs guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif exercised his right to opt out of the 2020 season. Who else will join him?

Some think that eventually the numbers will be low, perhaps in the single digits. The stipend players receive is essentially a down payment, not free money. Some players could take it, cut it next year, and potentially pay the team back. (We’re awaiting the final language on that point, but all indications are that, for example, an undrafted free agent who is probably not on the 53-man roster cannot simply pocket $ 150,000 and move on to something else with no future obligation. for the team.)

The exclusion amounts to a one-year break in a player’s career, with the player’s career picking up where he left off in 2021. With eight days remaining to make the decision, some players might still try to use a possible exclusion as leverage to a better contract

Ultimately, that could be the strategy implemented by Viking racer Dalvin Cook. Something strange is happening there, given the constant contradictions on Saturday as to whether or not he told the team that he will show up for the start of training camp.

Under the opt-out rules, Cook could show up for camp, let the team know he’s considering opting out, and then see if that message makes the Vikings sweeten any offer they’ve previously made. If they don’t, then you will have to decide whether to launch what would be an irrevocable one year delay.

It is definitely a two-edged sword. Cook would gain nothing if he endured; next year, he would still be entering the final year of his rookie contract, with the same $ 1,331 million he must earn this season. But the Vikings would lose their services for a full year, at a time when the Vikings are trying to build on what they accomplished in 2019.

Regardless of motivation, all players have a limited window to retire by 2020. Surely, some who have doubts about playing in the current climate would take those concerns into account if the team offered them greater compensation for the greater risks they will take. assuming this year. Maybe in the end, some of them just decide to push pause for 12 months, and maybe some teams will consider addressing their concerns with a financial hit that can get them to accept the full range of risks presented by what will be one of the season’s most strange in the history of the league.