The NFL and NFLPA have agreed on COVID-19 testing protocols and multiple reports on Monday indicated that the league is no longer proposing playing preseason games, which took a couple of big outstanding issues off the table with training camps set to start next week.
Practice schedules for training camp have been another discussion topic. A joint committee put in place by the NFL and NFLPA recommended three weeks of strength and conditioning work and 10 days of padded practice to ramp up workload before players work out in pads.
That schedule and preseason games were not compatible and it doesn’t look like backing off the plan for exhibition contests has led the league to embrace that recommendation. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports the league’s latest proposal calls for padded practices to begin on the 20th day of camp.
Per the report, testing for COVID-19 and physicals would cover five or six days with strength and conditioning work, including walkthroughs, would run through Day 12. After a day off, practices without pads would go through Day 18 and then padded practices would begin after another day off.
There’s no word on a response from the NFLPA, but it shouldn’t be long before we know if this is the schedule that will be in place once teams have reported to work.
