NFLPA President JC Tretter Favors Dropping Off-season Program

After seeing how the league functioned without the on-field OTA practices, NFLPA president JC Tretter writes in a new blog post that he'd be in favor of seeing such workouts have the same fate as the two-a-day training camp workouts.

Although science and medicine have made rapid strides toward learning about and controlling the COVID-19 virus, the impact of the pandemic on the NFL could leave permanent changes on how things are done moving forward.

Cleveland Browns center JC Tretter, who is also the current president of the NFLPA, writes in a new blog post that he would favor the league adopting an off-season structure similar to what it went through this year starting with the elimination of off-season programs through OTAs and minicamps, which were cancelled out of an abundance of caution due to the virus.

After experiencing that change, there is no reason for us to ever return to the previous offseason program. We are the only major sports league with an offseason program. The most physically demanding sport is the only league that brings their players back for extra practices outside of the season.

The argument in favor of these offseason practices is based on the assumption that players need reps during OTAs to develop and learn while teams need the practices to jell. Yet, the lack of OTAs this year demonstrated that those theories aren’t substantiated. New and first-year head coaches had success. Newly assembled teams had success. Rookies stepped in and played at a high level all across the league.

Why? Because our players are professionals. They understand what they need to do in order to be prepared. A lot of our guys train year-round to be at their physical peak. They also study their playbooks in order to mentally prepare. We do not need to be brought in during April-June to practice against each other - it’s simply unnecessary.

At the root is player safety, a topic that, while prioritized by both the league and the NFLPA, has seen both sides not on the same page regarding specific events and protocols to achieve the desired result.

Over the years, the league has made certain concessions to the NFLPA in the interest of player safety. Off-season programs that used to begin in March now start in April.

The number of OTAs has also been trimmed, and the two-a-day practice sessions of training camp have been banned, with teams having their practice sessions capped during training camp.

Tretter argues that despite these changes, which have undoubtedly made head coaches unhappy, the quality of play hasn't suffered.

Our collective level of play across the league has actually never been higher ... The changes implemented this season have demonstrated that we can put an entertaining product out on the field while further reducing wear and tear on our players’ bodies.

Where Tretter's argument hits a snag is that not all athletes have access to the same resources. 

During the off-season, we learned how Giants players trained, some of them able to work out in a fully equipped gym while others had to make do with makeshift weights and resistance training.

Still, other players can afford personal chefs and trainers, while those starting with lower salaries might not be able to afford those necessities for their career.

Without the team's strength coach overseeing the program, players run the risk of not reaching optimal performance levels as there is no one uniform standard shared among trainers.

While logic might dictate the NFL keep things the same as last year, working virtually had its limitations, especially for teams with new coaching staffs who had to wait until training camp to see if all the installs they taught via Zoom in the off-season were fits.

Giants head coach Joe Judge, who was among the new head coaches, spoke of how in the first few weeks of the season, the coaches were still getting to know their players and figure out what they did well and what they didn't.

If one or both offensive coordinator Jason Garrett or defensive coordinator Patrick Graham were to move on to a new post, would the Giants again be hamstrung while a new coordinator went through the process of figuring things out for his system?

Still, the COVID-19 virus doesn't sound as though it's going away anytime soon. While a vaccination is making its way into the public sector, it sounds as though teams will need to remain vigilant regarding COVID-19 safety protocols.

Then there is the current CBA ratified between the NFLPA and NFL just before the pandemic. While it would be hard to fathom both sides going back to the negotiating table, addendums can undoubtedly be incorporated as both sides see fit.

The NFL has come a long way from the days when there were no off-season programs as players used to hold regular jobs during the off-season.

However, training camps were usually longer to allow players to get back into playing shape, with the preseason running once running with six games from 1970-78 before moving to its current four-game format.  

With the NFL looking to play a 17-game schedule as soon as next year, the NFLPA is likely going to be looking to the league to give something back in return, be it yet another reduced or eliminated off-season program or a scaled-back preseason.