As COVID-19 cases increase around the country, the NFL has actually been impacted more over the last two weeks that at any time given that training camp began.
The Ravens-Steelers video game has been held off twice, with Baltimore set to play without 10 beginners– consisting of ruling NFL MVP Lamar Jackson— on Tuesday night, while the Broncos will play the Saints today without a quarterback
The league is now considering its most dramatic action yet to prevent such circumstances in the postseason.
NFL authorities are actively discussing creating “local bubbles” for the 14 or 16 groups that make the playoffs– isolating all personnel in hotels other than to go to and from the team facility and strictly implementing limitations on who is permitted inside to communicate with players, coaches or assistance personnel.
That’s considered a more feasible service than creating 32 separate bubbles for the remainder of the routine season, or developing one large bubble in the mold of the NBA and NHL playoffs, with thousands more people inside due to the fact that of the size of NFL lineups and personnels.
No decision has actually been made, and the union would likewise need to sign off. Bubbles do have a disadvantage.
For one, they take about a week to establish as soon as everyone has gone through COVID-19 testing and other procedures. There still would be some individuals coming and going, and if somebody tests favorable inside the bubble, the possibility of a break out can increase dramatically– issues Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s primary medical officer, has actually voiced publicly over the past several months.
The league and NFLPA recently enacted a few steps aimed at securing down. Facilities are closed Monday and Tuesday today due to increasing positivity rates throughout the nation and the possibility of direct exposures from out-of-town visitors during the Thanksgiving holiday. Players are now needed to wear masks on the sidelines if they’re not substituting into the video game or using a helmet. And the size of traveling celebrations has been cut down.
Still, as the virus rages around the country, there have been concerns:
- The Ravens will be without at least 10 starters on Tuesday against the Steelers, and they also currently have no strength coaches and half of their athletic fitness instructors due to COVID-19 procedures. Strength and conditioning coach Steve Saunders was suspended for not reporting signs and not consistently wearing a mask and tracking device.
- The Steelers will play without running back James Conner and defensive end Stephon Tuitt, among others. QB coach Matt Canada also checked positive and is out Tuesday.
- The Broncos had three of their QBs– Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and practice squader Blake Bortles— knocked out since they were high-risk close contacts to Jeff Driskel, who evaluated positive. That led to practice squad WR Kendall Hinton as the starting QB for the Broncos, by virtue of him playing the position at Wake Forest for a couple of years.
- The whole Jaguars defensive staff was quarantined all week as high-risk close contacts, and three assistants– consisting of defensive organizer Todd Wash– won’t be eligible to coach in Sunday’s game versus the Browns.
- Other star players on teams in the playoff hunt continue to test positive and miss out on video games, including Vikings receiver Adam Thielen and Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald today.
Those are simply the most current problems that came up over the last few days. The NFL is positive in its procedures, though those are contingent on gamers actually following them. At this moment still, there is less than a 1 percent positivity rate amongst the countless COVID-19 checks the league’s laboratory partners perform weekly.
As far as the Ravens go, their video game versus the Steelers is still on for Tuesday, with the belief that the spread has stopped, though favorable tests are still can be found in from previous contacts in line with the incubation duration of the infection.
The league will also continue to keep track of health developments, with brand-new tests coming with faster reactions and greater accuracy.
And After That there is the question of a possible Week18 It’s not the perfect situation– developing an additional week between the regular season and playoffs to get in video games that had to be moved due to COVID. And if, state, 2 non-playoff bound teams have a rescheduled game, it might not be added to Week18 The tentative plan would be just to include a week to the routine season just if it would put a team in the playoffs or not.
The NFL stays committed to trying to play all 256 games over 17, or 18, weeks. Only if all meaningful video games can not be completed would the playoff field be expanded from 14 to 16 teams.
But similar to anything with COVID-19, it’s all on a day-by-day, week-by-week basis.
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