Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
TOM SILVERSTEIN
Packers going virtual with some early offseason activities
Green Bay — There won’t be any noshows at the Green Bay Packers’ facility when Phase One of the offseason conditioning program begins April 19.
Rather than make their players buck a league-wide movement to skip voluntary workouts, the Packers have informed players that the first four weeks of the offseason program will be done virtually.
Normally, players would report to the facility and begin taking part in Phase One activities, which consists of classroom learning, limited strength and conditioning and physical rehabilitation. Sessions are limited to four hours per day four times a week and are generally well attended.
According to several agents of Packers players, the team informed their clients that the Phase One period would not require anyone to report to the facility. All the classroom activity will take place virtually as it did all last season when inperson offseason workouts were canceled due to the pandemic.
The first phase of the offseason program was extended from two weeks to four beginning April 19 and running through May 14, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press.
Players for 19 teams have announced on the NFL Players Association’s Twitter feed that they would not be attending the start of offseason conditioning programs because of their uneasiness with the COVID-19 protocols the league has in place.
The Los Angeles Rams players, for instance, said in their tweet: “We have had a unique and challenging experience in the last year, with the pandemic hitting members of our team and our city hard. While we all feel optimism that the pandemic can be beaten, we are still in this fight and believe it is unnecessary in this time for players to be volunteering to put themselves at risk for in-person workouts.”
Some of the statements said the entire team would not report for the voluntary workouts while others indicated that some players may report.
The Packers are in a different situation than many teams because so many of their players have lucrative workout bonuses that require them to take part in at least 84.375% of offseason workouts to receive the entire sum.
Among those who have large workout bonuses are outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith ($750,000), tackle David Bakhtiari ($700,000), nose tackle Kenny Clark ($600,000), safety Adrian Amos ($500,000) quarterback Aaron Rodgers ($500,000) and wide receiver Davante Adams ($500,000).
The Packers have 19 players with a combined $5 million in workout bonuses, which is the most of any team in the NFL, according to Spotrac.com. Jacksonville ranks second at $3.5 million and Buffalo third at $3.1 million.
The reason the Packers put so much emphasis on workout bonuses is they want their top players to spend the offseason in Green Bay, which generally is not where they care to spend their offseason. Since only a June minicamp can be declared mandatory, the Packers must lure veterans to the voluntary workouts with cash bonuses.
Most of the younger players feel obligated to attend because they don’t want to harm their chances of making the team.
The Packers only occasionally put workout bonuses in rookie contracts and almost never in those for undrafted rookies or low-salary free agents.
By allowing Phase One to be done virtually, the Packers are effectively buying themselves and the players a month to allow the NFL and NFLPA to reach an agreement on improved COVID-19 protocols the union is seeking. Once that period is over, Packers players will be in danger of losing their bonuses if they don’t show up to Lambeau Field.
Union executive president DeMaurice Smith has said he would not suggest that those players who have workout bonuses in their contracts miss the offseason activities because they are being paid for their time. The emphasis appears to be with those teams who don’t use workout bonuses to lure their players to the facility in the offseason.
Another reason players may be choosing to stay home is that there is a move within the union to eliminate the voluntary offseason work (which runs for nine weeks) because they don’t feel it’s necessary and if they must do it, they feel they should be paid more.
Those who don’t negotiate workout bonuses receive $275 per day for taking part, but to receive that amount they must participate in at least three of four scheduled sessions in a given week. So, for someone like Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander, who is one of the best players on the team but is still on his rookie contract, the most he can make for nine weeks of work is around $10,000.
The union has argued that last season proved offseason workouts are not necessary. Even though the players took part in offseason activities virtually, the level of play and the number of injuries were not negatively impacted, the union claims.
NFLPA president JC Tretter cited these statistics as reasons offseason activities were not needed:
● Over the past five years, the average number of missed-time injuries annually for all NFL teams was 3,524. For the 2020 season, the number of missed-time injuries decreased to 2,716.
● A two-week acclimation period at the start of training camp resulted in the lowest summer injury rate in that same time frame.
● Points were up (12,692, a league record), penalties were down and missed tackles were down.
● A total of 69.9% (179 of 256) games were within one score (eight points) in the fourth quarter, the second-most amount in NFL history.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur and his staff were pleased with the work the team did virtually last offseason and has said the quality of the work was part of the reason the team did so well despite the pandemic.
Team president Mark Murphy cited the way the Packers eased into training
camp as one of the reasons why he thought a 17th game this season would not cause undue stress on the players’ bodies.
The downside of not having the players in-house during the offseason is that the younger players don’t get as much onfield work with the veterans and the rookies — who don’t join the workouts until May — don’t get to run through plays with their new teammates.
The one thing that does seem certain is that there will be offseason activities held in Green Bay.
Once Phase One is completed, Packers players will be asked to report for the next phase, which includes a week (reduced from three) of limited on-field football activities, such as plays being run in a noncompetitive manner.
Then it will be on to Phase Three, which remains at four weeks (from May 24 to June 18) and consists of a maximum of 10 “organized team activity days,” in which non-contact 11-on-11 drills may be run in helmets and shorts. The club may include a three-day mandatory minicamp during the final two weeks of this phase, when the same on-field rules will apply.
For now, however, the virtual work will fulfill the requirements for receiving workout bonuses.