The National Football League has become a year-round spectacle thanks to the glorification of free agency, the draft, off-season programs, training camp, regular season and post-season.
But as the league looks to expand its reach globally, a key part of the off-season could be going the way of the dinosaur if the NFLPA has its way.
That would be the OTAs, which are currently taking place across all 32 teams’ landscapes. According to NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero, the NFLPA is lobbying for the elimination of OTAs perhaps as soon as 2025 in exchange for an earlier training camp reporting date that could see players report between mid-June or early July instead of 15 days prior to their first preseason game, which is currently the case.
End of OTAs? The NFL Players Association is working to finalize a proposal to overhaul the offseason starting as soon as 2025, eliminating voluntary on-field work in the spring in favor of a longer training camp ramp-up, with players reporting in mid-June to early July, per… pic.twitter.com/nQa9TmKCGO
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 28, 2024
According to Pelissero, the players’ union has sought the feedback of its members regarding the change, and there is growing support for the idea.
The proposed change is reminiscent of the days when training camps were eight weeks long, and OTAs, which first came into existence in the 1990s, didn’t exist.
But also back in those days, training camps were structured much differently than they are today.
Many teams held two-a-day practices and there was a longer preseason schedule. In addition, the early part of the longer training camp often devoted a couple of weeks toward weight training, which today is the first phase in the off-season program.
To an extent, eliminating the OTAs would make sense given there is a six-week downtime between the end of the OTA period and the start of training camps in which the players currently have a five-day ramp-up period built into the start of camp.
The three phases that currently exist for the off-season program could all be folded into a longer training camp period, with the actual OTAs (Phase 3), where offense is allowed to go against defense, becoming the padded part of training camp practice.
But if this change were to indeed happen, the rules governing the number of padded practices permitted would also probably have to be adjusted accordingly, especially if in the future, the preseason gets reduced from three games to two.
The other issue is player safety, which the league continues to claim to be cognizant of. Typically, early summer temperatures and humidity can soar to the point of the air quality not being healthy enough for outdoor aerobic activity.
But again, if the three phases of the off-season program were rolled into the six-to-eight-week period, with most teams having a climate-controlled practice facility, this probably wouldn’t be that drastic of a change.
Further, a longer off-season would allow players, particularly those whose teams advance deep into the postseason or those who are recovering from any sort of surgery, to have a longer recovery time from any injuries suffered the previous years.
It’s an interesting proposal with pros and cons, and one we’re curious to see if it gets passed by both sides.
