NFL Notes: 2020 Season, Revenue, 2021 Draft

2020 Season

• Ian Rapoport reports that the number of preseason games and testing protocols are still among the issues the NFL and NFLPA need to sort out.
• According to Rapoport, there will be no fans at training camp this year. However, NFL teams can have up to two fan events at stadiums this preseason with strict protocols to be followed.
• Rapoport mentions that fans will be required to wear face coverings where they’re allowed to attend games.
• As for training camp, Rapoport says the schedule of practices can be tied to the preseason game questions.

Revenue 

An NFL source tells Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports that the NFL asking players to place 35 percent of salaries in escrow is “the tip of the iceberg” and could foreshadow a coming fight that will put the two parties and potentially endanger the start of the season.

“It’s a major problem that isn’t going away,” Robinson’s source said. “One way or the other, it’s going to have to be bargained out [between the league and the union] if this is going to work.”

Robinson explains that by requesting a 35 percent reduction in salaries to help offset operating costs, the NFL has sent a clear message that if they’re going to lose revenue, the players should lose some salary.

A league source familiar with some of the revenue-loss models explains to Robinson that some projections suggest a revenue hit so costly that the 2021 salary cap may have to reduce by as much as $40 million per team.

“More likely than not, [the NFL] and the union would smooth it out by taking away smaller increments of money from future caps,” a source tells Robinson. “It would be made up in the aggregate of five or six or 10 salary caps than all at once.”

However, a league source added: “That hit could be remedied if players were willing to give back some salaries now to help teams deal with costs that are going to rise and revenues that are going to shrink.”

2021 NFL Draft

• Pro Football Network’s Tony Pauline says that barring something unforeseen, multiple sources have said Miami DE Gregory Rousseau plans to declare for the draft in 2021 as a likely first-round pick. 
• Daniel Jeremiah says it was “love at first sight” when he began studying Miami EDGE Rousseau’s tape.
• According to Jeremiah, Rousseau is an effective pass rusher capable of working inside against interior offensive linemen.
• Jeremiah compares Rousseau to Vikings DE Danielle Hunter and says he’s more polished at the college level than Hunter was. Jeremiah can see Rousseau emerging as a perennial All-Pro player.