How Potential Shortened Preseason Could Impact Giants

It might not be as catastrophic as it initially sounds.

This time of year, NFL teams, fans, and media would be preparing for training camps that typically begin mid- to late July.

But the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has cast the NFL and the world into uncharted waters in which health and government officials have been trying to find a balance between keeping everyone as safe as possible while also seeking to get the economy that was mostly shut down in mid-March back on track.

For the NFL teams, they await further guidelines from the league’s health and safety officials, which might not come until we draw closer to the scheduled training camp launch dates (which for the Giants is believed to be July 29). 

This is partly due to the science and medical fields' finding out new information about the virus and how to thwart it. Also, it's believed that the NFL is keeping an eye on how the other major sports leagues are planning to re-open to see if there are protocols they can apply.

In the meantime, one proposal reportedly under consideration is the shortening of the preseason schedule from four games to two, which would reduce travel and exposure to others.

The NFL and NFLPA are discussing the possibility of shortening the 2020 preseason, per sources.

Nothing finalized or imminent, but multiple team executives informed of talks currently believe they could end up playing two preseason games, rather than four.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 10, 2020

If that were to happen, the assumption is that teams would have a longer training camp period. That might ultimately prove beneficial for teams given how they were unable to gather their players for any spring practices where the coaches could assess players’ physical conditions or see how well they learned the schemes taught to them during the virtual classroom sessions.

“We have to put the players in a position where they can come in, and they can learn to execute the schemes on the field and practice,” Giants head coach Joe Judge told me earlier this week. 

“But we also have to give the opportunity to just put them through the football movements on the grass and have the awareness to keep them healthy. We have to push them. We have to practice hard, and we have to condition at the same time.”

With that desire to condition and practice simultaneously, Judge noted that it’s important to not overdo it to where players who might not have had access to personal trainers or gyms end up getting hurt.

“We have to understand they didn't have a spring, and we have to careful not to put them in a position where they're gonna go out and get hurt,” he said. 

“If you go back to 2011, which was the last year that the league didn't have a spring, the rate of injury was much higher. The rate of soft tissue injuries early in training camp period was much higher.

“We have to be smart as coaches to make sure that we give the players the opportunity to acclimate and put their bodies in a position that they can compete. 

"And then after we've had a period where we feel that that's been accomplished, that we feel that our players go out there full speed and, and practice execute safely. Then we have to infuse competition in everything we do.”

Judge said that whatever protocols were put in place, the Giants would comply.

It sounds as though within his numerous plans that he has drawn up to accommodate any possible training camp scenario follows the same thread of allowing the players extra time to demonstrate they’re in condition before moving to the next intensity level.

If that extra time has to come from removing two preseason games from the four-game schedule, so be it. 

While there will be questions regarding how that might affect some players who would be considered longshots for the roster (because they would be deprived of game snaps to make an impression), the bottom line is that if a player doesn't earn snaps in practice, it might not matter if the preseason slate of games is shortened.