Chase Daniel may just be a backup quarterback, but he’s also well-traveled. The guy has been around the league for a long time with several different teams. It stands to reason he is pretty well-connected in both player and coaching circles. That is why it’s interesting when he makes notable comments like a recent one on Twitter.
The announcement came down on Wednesday that the NFL would be shortening the preseason from four games to two. This in an effort to help players ramp up better ahead of the season after having no minicamps or OTAs. However, there is a groundswell suggesting that the NFLPA could push to have no preseason games at all. Why risk COVID-19 exposure in meaningless games?
There is also an outlier of high-ranking team officials pushing to have the season postponed to October. This in order to buy more preparation time. Games that would’ve been played in September would be shifted to the end of the season. So in this instance, the Chicago Bears season would debut on Thursday Night Football against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Daniel knows one thing is for sure. This preseason stuff is only the beginning.
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Chase Daniel isn’t wrong. It feels like more is coming
It’s not certain what else the NFL will do. What is clear is players are quite nervous about playing games with no plan on how to combat exposure to the virus. Bears insider Hub Arkush already stated that several he’s talked to are planning to sit the year out. He didn’t give names but it’s obvious guys are not wild about the idea of constant body-on-body contact with a pandemic going on.
Thus far the league has remained adamant the season will start on time. However, that could change depending on what happens with Major League Baseball and the NBA starting up again soon. If they encounter lots of problems with protecting their own players, it could force the NFL’s hand. At that point, they may have no choice but to postpone, shorten, or even cancel the season.
That is a worst-case scenario nobody wants to think about.
