Amid Pandemic, a Sliver of a Silver Lining

With a mostly veteran roster for second-year coach Matt LaFleur, the loss of the offseason program might not be a huge problem for the Packers.

The longer the COVID-19 pandemic rages, the more likely it will greatly decrease, if not completely eliminate, the NFL’s offseason programs.

The Green Bay Packers could have started their voluntary workouts as soon as April 20, but those have been delayed indefinitely. The draft will go on as scheduled from April 23 through April 25, with that setting the stage for a rookie minicamp at the start of May, organized team activities beginning in mid-May and continuing into June, and a veteran minicamp in mid-June.

If there’s one small silver lining for the Packers, coach Matt LaFleur is in Year 2 on the job and isn’t building his program from scratch. And he’ll have a mostly veteran roster, with most of last year’s starters set to return. The loss of the offseason will be a blow to this year's rookie class, but that's universal for all 32 teams.

If there’s another sliver of a silver lining, it’s that the players might benefit from the extra time away after their season extended to the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 19.

“With my routine, I don’t really ramp until we get closer to the season anyway,” 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman told SI’s Albert Breer. “I wouldn’t need an offseason program, I think most veterans would tell you that. The lockout year, that was my rookie year, we went straight into the season, and it wasn’t really a concern for us. For a lot of us, that stuff’s a waste of time. It’s good for the young guys, but not as much for a guy who’s 10 years into playing in a scheme.”

Continuing with Breer’s piece:

And Sherman agreed with a point that Chiefs tackle Mitch Schwartz raised to me—that this unusual situation means the two Super Bowl teams won’t face a disadvantage that often comes with a deeper playoff run. Normally, San Francisco and Kansas City would be up against a truncated offseason, with only about two months separating the last game and the reporting date for teams’ strength-and-conditioning programs.

As it stands now, it looks like the Super Bowl teams will almost certainly get that time back without losing anything on other teams also forced to keep their facilities shut down.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Schwartz said, though obviously the word 'good' in these circumstances is all relative. “Pushing the start later means some guys will come back more ready to get right back into the swing of things, because we get to take a little more time to get our bodies right. … For me, personally, being an older guy, to get that little extra rest helps. When you start OTAs, we were going to have lost five weeks of that, and this will probably build it back in.”

For all of Breer’s game plan, which includes some draft nuggets, click here.