Toughest test ahead for NFL contenders likely off the field
As the NFL enters Week 15, many teams are making their final pushes for divisional titles and postseason berths, this weekend and the two beyond. Time is running out.
For the most part, the league’s elite teams in each conference have already distinguished themselves. For many, it’s a matter of jockeying for seeding position and building momentum to carry into the playoffs for that coveted Super Bowl push.
But the greatest test for teams in this
Reaching the finish line, and continuing uninterrupted in the postseason will require even greater vigilance on the part of players, coaches and staff members because there now is next to no wiggle room remaining.
three-week window of the regular season and in the four weekends of postseason play might not even take place on the field. It’s the challenge of remaining healthy and ensuring that the coronavirus doesn’t completely derail a team’s chances for success.
“I think the one thing as a coach you’re constantly thinking of is, ‘Man, how do we stay COVID-free?’ Because that’s the one wild card this year that can really possibly hamper a team at a wrong time,” Saints coach Sean Payton told USA TODAY Sports. A COVID-19 outbreak “could hamper a team in their ability to get into the playoffs or have success in the playoffs because of how it can impact a locker room very quickly.”
The NFL, its schedule-makers and teams deserve praise for how they have managed to remain on schedule amid the pandemic. Some teams have experienced outbreaks on larger scales than others. And some games have had to be postponed by several days or weeks. But through 14 weeks of play, all of the previously scheduled games have been played. What once seemed impossible (the completion of a normal 256-game season in the traditional 17-week time frame) now lies within reach.
But at the same time, reaching that finish line and continuing uninterrupted in the postseason will require even greater vigilance on the part of players, coaches and staff members because there now is next to no wiggle room remaining.
The Week 12 Denver quarterback wipeout and Thanksgiving week COVID-19 outbreak within the Ravens organization must serve as teaching tools, because no contender wants to experience such a brush in the postseason.
Could you imagine the devastation those back-of-the-pack squads like the Ravens, Dolphins, Buccaneers, Cardinals or Vikings could potentially experience if they miss the playoffs because they lost one of those final must-win contests because their quarterback or some other top star sat out with COVID?
Could Baltimore’s Lamar Jacksonless loss to Pittsburgh wind up costing it in the long run?
Or, say the Chiefs had to engage a red-hot Bills team in a conference championship shootout without Patrick Mahomes.
No one wants to experience such a scenario. So the level of accountability within organizations is ramping up that much more.
“I think teams will be that much more responsible to each other,” Payton said. “They might have individual strategies, but with that much at stake, you’ll find that even the finest details will be looked at even closer.”
Those individual strategies do not include mandatory bubbles after the NFL issued a memo to teams informing them that they are not allowed to require players to stay in hotels down the stretch of the season. But if a player who lives with a roommate or family members requests hotel accommodations to keep himself safer from risk of COVID, teams are permitted to oblige, and such a player would have to wear a tracking device at all times until he was in his room for the night.
For much of the season, fans and some media members have asked why the league doesn’t require its teams to implement bubbles. But the fact of the matter is, the teams, coaches and players don’t want a bubble move because they don’t want to be away from their families, particularly during the holidays. With league-wide COVID-19 numbers going down in recent weeks as they increase across the country, NFL officials and medical experts believe strict adherence to protocol is doing the job and accountability and vigilance are the best and safest course of action both for the physical and mental state of players and coaches.
We’re about to find out if they’re right. And we’re about to learn how the level of discipline off the field can make a champion on it.