Re-opening Club Facilities and the 2020 Schedule

We're a day away from the unveiling of the 2020 NFL regular season schedule, an event that always arrives with a lot of anticipation but also with a lot of questions this year.

Who knows what the country will look like when the 2020 season is scheduled to kick off Sept. 10 with what can only presume will be a game at Kansas City, home of the Super Bowl champion Chiefs.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic and the way it has shut down American cities, much remains to be determined when it comes to both the schedule and the ability to play a full schedule in 2020 and on a smaller scale even when teams will be able to assemble at their facilities to start holding workout.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to all 32 teams Wednesday, according to a tweet by NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero, and it outlined steps to be taken for the first phase of facilities re-opening.

On the eve of the schedule release, Commissioner Roger Goodell also sent a memo to clubs discouraging public comment by club officials on hypotheticals surrounding the 2020 season, saying in part: “It is impossible to project what the next few months will bring.” pic.twitter.com/Zoyz2RLU5l
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 6, 2020

According to the memo obtained by Pelissero, the first phase would "involve a limited number of non-player personnel — initially 50 percent of the non-player employees (up to a total of 75) on any single day unless state or local regulations require a lower number."

There also was a segment applying to players, which stated, "No players would be permitted in the facility except to continue a course of therapy and rehabilitation that was underway when facilities were initially closed."

Then there's the schedule.

Because there's no guarantee the league will be able to kick off in September, though it hopes to, the plan is to schedule nothing but non-conference games in the first four weeks — that way, they can be eliminated if the season has to be shortened to 12 games.

This information comes from longtime NFL reporter John Clayton.

.@JohnClaytonNFL tells @937theFan that the NFL schedule will be NFC vs AFC for the 1st 4 weeks of the season. Steelers play the NFC East. So 1st 4 games would be Cowboys, Eagles, Redskins, and Giants.
— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) May 6, 2020

Under this scenario, the Dolphins would open the 2020 regular season against the four NFC West team — the Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks.

This would make for quite a difficult opening month for the Dolphins, considering those teams had a combined 38-35-1 record in 2019 — the best record of any division in the NFL.

The Dolphins are scheduled to play home games against the Seahawks and Rams and play road games against the 49ers and Cardinals.

As a reminder, the Dolphins' other home games will be against the three other AFC East teams (Buffalo, the Jets and New England), as well as the Chargers, Chiefs and Bengals. The other road games will be against the AFC East opponents, the Raiders, Broncos and Jaguars.

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