Gaming COVID in the NFL

Saints Rest

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Unlike the other major sports where COVID hit in medias res, the NFL is having to adapt at this point, during the off-season only. We've seen that they have decided to hold the draft in its normal time frame, but all pre-draft workouts and evaluations will have to be done in a new way. It's also likely that there will be no OTA's of any sort before the start of training camp, at the very earliest. And who knows what effect COVID might have on the start of the regular season.

So will any teams look at the 2020 season as a lost cause and thus make all their plans with an eye primarily toward 2021? Or will any teams plan for this 2020 season differently due to the impact COVID will have on this season, assuming it does get played at some point, whether by being extended or by being shortened.

I will admit that this is a bit of a leading question in re the Pats. What coach or GM is better situated to punt on a season? What coach or GM is more likely to be playing 4-D chess?

Bedard opined that the Pats may very well be doing this, as evidenced by the number of 1-year contracts they are handing out these days, as well as the fact that they stand right now with only 30 players with a contract for 2020.

I'm not just talking about salary cap manipulations -- though those will certainly be part of any such strategy -- but also thinking about how they might treat the draft this year, how they might view Stidham's development, and how they might be looking at further roster fills.

All of that entails the stipulation that you are punting on 2020 with an eye on 2021. That approach isn't much different than a more conventional "blow-it-up" or "Suck for Luck" type rebuilding. But what about my second question about changing what you do this year to win this year?

With a shortened off-season, perhaps one puts a higher emphasis on veterans (although letting Brady walk makes this seem like its not part of the Pats strategy). What else could you do? Simplify schemes? Install something different that other teams won't have the time to counter (is this the time when BB finally breaks out of NFL Films archives the Single-Wing?).
 

Super Nomario

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Bedard opined that the Pats may very well be doing this, as evidenced by the number of 1-year contracts they are handing out these days, as well as the fact that they stand right now with only 30 players with a contract for 2020.
If 2020 is kind of a punt year, you wouldn't want to hand out one-year contracts; you can roll over cap space so you'd want to minimize unnecessary 2020 expenditure. But I don't think they've handed out an inordinate number of one-year contracts, to be honest.

It's hard to tell what has guided their thought process this offseason. The 30% rule impacted their ability to extend players like Hightower, McCourty, Thuney prior to the passing of the new CBA, and the new CBA hit just before free agency and right about the time all the COVID stuff started up. At some point in there they figured out / decided Brady wasn't returning. So it's hard to tell what's a product of dealing with CBA restrictions, what's a product of a rebuild year with no Brady, and what's done with the specter of COVID wiping out portions of the offseason / season.
 

E5 Yaz

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If they were punting, would they have franchised Thuney?
 

Al Zarilla

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Dec 8, 2005
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Unlike the other major sports where COVID hit in medias res, the NFL is having to adapt at this point, during the off-season only. We've seen that they have decided to hold the draft in its normal time frame, but all pre-draft workouts and evaluations will have to be done in a new way. It's also likely that there will be no OTA's of any sort before the start of training camp, at the very earliest. And who knows what effect COVID might have on the start of the regular season.

So will any teams look at the 2020 season as a lost cause and thus make all their plans with an eye primarily toward 2021? Or will any teams plan for this 2020 season differently due to the impact COVID will have on this season, assuming it does get played at some point, whether by being extended or by being shortened.

I will admit that this is a bit of a leading question in re the Pats. What coach or GM is better situated to punt on a season? What coach or GM is more likely to be playing 4-D chess?

Bedard opined that the Pats may very well be doing this, as evidenced by the number of 1-year contracts they are handing out these days, as well as the fact that they stand right now with only 30 players with a contract for 2020.

I'm not just talking about salary cap manipulations -- though those will certainly be part of any such strategy -- but also thinking about how they might treat the draft this year, how they might view Stidham's development, and how they might be looking at further roster fills.

All of that entails the stipulation that you are punting on 2020 with an eye on 2021. That approach isn't much different than a more conventional "blow-it-up" or "Suck for Luck" type rebuilding. But what about my second question about changing what you do this year to win this year?

With a shortened off-season, perhaps one puts a higher emphasis on veterans (although letting Brady walk makes this seem like its not part of the Pats strategy). What else could you do? Simplify schemes? Install something different that other teams won't have the time to counter (is this the time when BB finally breaks out of NFL Films archives the Single-Wing?).
Notre Dame Box, which he could probably get going efficiently in a couple of days.

To the thread question, maybe a lot of teams will figure there’s no super team around, so “why not us?” Or is Kansas City maybe that team?