Virtual offseason impacting rookies

Joe Burrow should be getting ready to report to rookie mini-camp this month, then joining the veterans on the Cincinnati Bengals for the rest of the offseason program.

But like everyone else around the NFL, Burrow is left on his own to prepare for the season with facilities shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and unlikely to open until training camp at the earliest.

“You have to find a way to get in your backyard and get reps in,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “Whether it’s telling your girlfriend or mom where to line up, or how many steps to take on each route — just make sure you know it inside and outside. We’re going to challenge our guys to get creative.”

The best comparison to what the NFL is going through this offseason with no practices, in-person meetings or the usual bonding that happens each spring came back in 2011 when team owners locked out the players until July.

That led to no trades or free agency signings all offseason, then a rushed process to get ready for training camp that summer, with players finding new teams and learning new systems on the fly.

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But it wasn’t detrimental to the No. 1 pick that year, the only player before Burrow to win the Heisman Trophy, a national championship and be drafted first overall. Cam Newton won the starting job in Carolina and threw for more than 400 yards in each of his first starts on the way to winning Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.

He wasn’t alone making an early impact. Andy Dalton went from a second-round pick in Cincinnati to a Week 1 starter and led the Bengals to the playoffs. Other rookies such as Von Miller, J.J. Watt, Julio Jones, A.J. Green, Patrick Peterson and Aldon Smith made major impacts.

In all, more rookies started Week 1 that season than in any previous year since the merger. The 47 Week 1 starts for rookies only was surpassed in 2012 and in 2019.

That success story from 2011 didn’t stop executives from taking the lack of a traditional offseason into account in their draft strategy. Raiders general manager Mike Mayock said he wanted to concentrate most of his choices in the earlier rounds where he believed the players were more finished products and would have an easier time getting up to speed.

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