The beginning of NFL training camp has gotten off to a false start.
The Jets’ rookies were not allowed to report to camp as scheduled on Tuesday morning, and the Giants rookies may not arrive on Thursday either due to some confusion over the COVID-19-related protocols that were apparently agreed upon by the NFL and NFLPA. Both teams are waiting for the league to clear up the protocols and for the agreement to become official before they bring in players for COVID-19 tests.
Until then, the Jets’ rookies are waiting at a hotel near their Florham Park, N.J. facility, while Giants rookies have been told to wait before making any travel arrangements to New Jersey.
With most of the Jets’ 18 rookies already in New Jersey, the team was planning to get underway with the first of the rookies’ COVID-19 tests. The plan, as per the NFL-NFLPA agreement, was to test the rookies and then send them back to their hotels. Then on Friday, after two days of virtual meetings, the rookies would be tested again before they’d be allowed into the team facility for the first time on Saturday if both COVID-19 tests were negative.
But the Jets only received the new COVID-19 protocols on Monday night, and the organization didn’t feel it made sense to begin testing until they were sure all the details were clear. They are hoping the league will clear everything up soon so they can bring their rookies in within a day or two. Their quarterbacks and injured players were expected to begin their COVID-19 testing on Thursday, but that is on hold for now, too.
As for the Giants, their rookies were expected in Thursday, along with their quarterbacks and injured players. But the team hasn’t given anyone clearance to travel to New Jersey yet, according to several agents who represent Giants rookies. Until the NFL-NFLPA agreement is official, the Giants don’t want to bring players to the area, and risk them having to just wait around for the details to be finalized. They figure everyone would be safer during this pandemic waiting at their homes.
Of course, many of their players – and some rookies – are already in the New York/New Jersey area. But they will be on their own until the Giants are certain that all the details of COVID-19 testing and training camp have been worked out.
Both teams are hopeful that everything will be cleared up by July 28 – their official full-team reporting dates – and that they’ll be able to bring in their first two reporting groups long before that. Once the players do arrive, the NFL-NFLPA plan appears to be for players to be tested on their first and fourth day of camp, with only virtual meetings in between.
On Day 5, they would be allowed in the facility to begin strength and conditioning if both COVID-19 tests had come up negative. And then they’d begin a workout program that is expected to last 18 days before actual practices begin.
But again, those details haven’t been officially announced and apparently none of it has been made clear to the teams. And because of that, the start of Giants and Jets training camps will have to wait.