NFL, players clear hurdles for start of training camp. Practices could start soon
With more time than any other major sports league in the United States to prepare for life amid the COVID-19 pandemic that began in March, the 49ers and the NFL are a week away from the official report date for training camp, July 28, and a few key issues have been patched up to allow for football’s return.
The NFL Players Association and the league have been working to resolve key issues with safety guidelines and finances the most prominent concerns.
There appears to be progress the past few days on the coronavirus testing front to keep players healthy and safe while they’ll be sequestered in NFL facilities across the country. According to multiple reports, the league and players association on Monday agreed to protocols that includes daily testing for the first two weeks of training camp. Testing will be every other day if positivity rates fall below 5%.
“This is ongoing work,” Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s top medical advisor, told ESPN. “There’s no finish line with health and safety, and I think these protocol are living, breathing documents, which means they will change as we get new information. They will undoubtedly be changing over time, which is what we usually see in medicine.”
49ers give report dates
The medical protocols being in place has allowed San Francisco to give players their report dates for training camp. Rookies, quarterbacks and injured players report Thursday, two days after most other teams. Other players will report July 28.
According to a league memo, players on their first day will get tested and then go home to self-quarantine for the next two days. A day later, the fourth day from the report date, players can begin entering the facility. Day five, slated for Aug. 1 with the entire team present, is when daily testing begins. The first full-team practices are likely to happen during the first week of August, about a week later than under normal circumstances.
The importance of medical protocols was the most discussed topic during a players association conference call with reporters last week as cases have spiked throughout the country since economies began reopening in June.
“Our position was we have players, who have spoken with our membership, who are nervous about flying from a relative safe location directly into a hot spot with their families, with their kids, with their wives,” NFLPA president, and Cleveland Browns center, J.C. Tretter, told reporters.
The testing will be done by BioReference Labs, which has also been tapped for the NBA and MLS in their bubbles in Orlando. Though unlike those leagues, the NFL will not be confined in a centralized bubble with all teams in one location.
Players push for no exhibition games
Players are also pushing for a prolonged ramp-up period to allow their bodies to acclimate back to football after not getting any full-team work on the field throughout the offseason.
Part of that includes the fight for no preseason games. And according to multiple reports Monday afternoon, the league offered to cancel the entire preseason as part of the ongoing negotiations.
There’s also a chance players will have the opportunity to opt out of the 2020 season altogether.
According to an NFL proposal obtained by Pro Football Talk, which has not been approved by the players association, players will not receive their base salaries or any roster bonuses set to be paid after an Aug. 1 opt-out deadline. Players that opt out would get a $150,000 stipend as an advance from any future salary. Notably, according to the proposal, teams and players cannot renegotiate a contract with a player once they formalize their intent to opt out.
The opt-out clause could create a noteworthy wrinkle for the 49ers and their Super Bowl hopes in 2020 as an unintended consequence.
Kittle could use opt-out tactic
Their best player, tight end George Kittle, has been negotiating with the club for a new contract this offseason ahead of the final year of his rookie contract. A first-team All-Pro last season, Kittle is wildly underpaid and due to make roughly $2.1 million in base salary. He’s looking for a contract to reset the market at the position that could be worth some $15 million annually.
Could Kittle use a 2020 opt-out as a point of leverage for these discussions? And would the NFL allow for that scenario in their proposal? That remains to be seen, but worth considering given the stalemate in contract talks with the team. Teams since the pandemic began have been leery of giving our new contracts given the looming drop in revenue expected with few to no fans in attendance this season.
The salary cap, of course, is directly tied to league revenue, and the players union projects each club could see a $70 million drop in their cap allotment for 2021. A mechanism to smooth those losses over multiple seasons so players don’t bear the brunt of the economic downfall from one year has been part of the ongoing negotiations.
Kittle opting out of the season would be a massive blow to the club’s championship hopes, given he’s the offense’s most dynamic player. He was the team’s top pass catcher the past two seasons while his blocking is fundamental to the success of coach Kyle Shanahan’s outside zone running scheme.
The 49ers would be hard-pressed to find a player on their roster — with the draft and free agency in the rearview — to replace their most important non-quarterback on the roster. An opt-out could give Kittle leverage he wouldn’t have in a normal offseason given the new collective bargaining agreement signed in the spring penalized players for holding out.
Meanwhile, California is taking a far more proactive approach to the health of its high school football players, though there’s far less money on the line. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) issued a statement Monday saying the high school football season, and other fall sports, will likely be pushed back until December or January, with playoffs possibly extending into April.
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 6:26 PM.