By Kevin Stone/@kstone06/@newftbj

Back to school for NFL players? Sort of. 

Breakfast at eight, home gym lift session at nine, film at 11, position meetings at noon, pet yoga at two, put the kid down for a nap, lunch, more film, call it a day.

It’s a rough outline, but thanks to the new agreement between the NFL and NFLPA, there will be involuntary virtual workouts replacing OTA’s between April 20th and May 15th. These aren’t mandatory, just as regular OTA’s aren’t mandatory, but that’s what a schedule for a rookie or younger player in the NFL could look like starting next week. 

Feels a little sophomore year of college, doesn’t it?

Teams are permitted to “conduct classroom instruction, workouts, and non-football educational programs through the use of videoconferencing technology.” There is no-on field work during these times like there would be during a normal offseason.

The league did address the possibility of restrictions to the offseason program being pulled back a bit after May 15th, but also acknowledged that being dependent on the situation with state and local regulations regarding COVID-19. If team facilities are still closed past May 15th, teams will be allowed to conduct mandatory minicamps for veterans, “provided that (i) any online classroom instruction may not exceed two hours; (ii) any virtual workouts may not exceed two hours; and (iii) the Club may schedule the times for these activities as it chooses.”

This all leads to a bigger question in terms of competitiveness for what is sure to be a stranger-than-usual NFL season: Is this going to work or serve the same purpose as normal OTA’s? 

Well, it depends on the franchise.

Let’s start with the Patriots. Bill Belichick can’t make anyone join these workouts or meetings, but if you’re a younger guy like Stidham, Meyers, Harry, Winovich, etc., or a player that misses the team brotherhood aspect of football during these times, the virtual workouts are going to serve as an escape for older guys with kids at home and will remain a vital orientation-type of program for younger guys.

You’d have to think everyone will be on board with these. Anyone suiting up for the Patriots this year will hear the noise that they aren’t going to do anything with Brady gone, so why not do what the Patriots do best and take advantage of these new meeting guidelines better than any other team will? Belichick is often lauded for his preparation, well, this is going to be the ultimate test of which franchises take prepare as seriously as the Patriots do.

If you look at a few franchises like the Cleveland Browns, the Oakland Raiders, or even the LA Rams, do we really think that these voluntary virtual workouts are going to be a point of emphasis or taken seriously with Kitchens, Gruden or McVay?

One of them can’t keep a star playing from ripping off an opponent’s helmet and swinging it at someone, the other is almost 20-years removed from his only Super Bowl victory and McVay is a college kid in an NFL coach’s body. When it comes to discipline, it’s hard to believe other coaches – I just pulled these three as prime examples – will have the same ability as Belichick and his staff to make sure guys are buying in during a time when selfishness could reign supreme around the league.

Of course, the points about these workouts and meetings being an escape for guys with kids or an important introduction to the NFL for young guys applies for all 32 teams, but these are the types of franchises that may end up being screwed because they can’t get in guys’ faces on a daily basis for a few weeks.

How about the teams in the division? I believe Miami will be okay and use this time wisely, their problem is ultimately just going to be lack of talent once we get to the regular season. The Jets seemed to have their crap together a bit last year, but are they going to use these meetings and this time as productively as Belichick, McDaniels and the rest of the Pats staff will? Hard to imagine.

Buffalo will be an interesting case, it seems like McDermott has the guys bought in, and with Stefon Diggs now in the fold offensively, if he and Josh Allen can take advantage of these workouts then Buffalo will be the biggest threat to New England, but we’ll save predictions for August.

The NFL and the NFLPA were obviously smart to work something out and make sure OTA’s aren’t completely wiped out, but doing it in this format is going to be quite an interesting experiment in regards to preparation.

It’s going to feel like heading back to school for many NFL players next week, and NFL coaches and GM’s are going to quickly learn who’s all in and who simply skated bye on football merits alone in college.