NFL Notes: Playoffs, Minority Coaching Candidates, COVID-19

Playoffs

CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora says there was a lot of opposition to the proposal to expand the playoffs to 16 teams as a fallback if the pandemic forces too many cancellations. While the resolution passed, a vocal minority of owners opposed it. 

“It’s a slippery slope we shouldn’t easily go down,” an executive with one team who opposed the proposal tells La Canfora. “We aren’t the only ones pushing back on it.”

La Canfora adds those owners don’t want this to be seen as any sort of trial balloon for further playoff expansion. 

Minority Coaching Candidates

• According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the NFL’s new plan to award compensatory picks to teams who develop minority head coach and general manager was received with mixed feelings by people of color in the league. 
• Sources told Schefter people weren’t happy about not being consulted to the league’s resolution, which they also felt was passed too quickly: “This will affect all of us, and we wanted to be involved in the process. We don’t know whether it’s lip service or real, and we just want to be judged on our own merits.”
• Another said the rule could impact teams hiring coaches from division rivals, like the Dolphins hiring Brian Flores away from the Patriots: “It’s counterintuitive. They’re rewarding you for doing something that you should have been doing already.”

COVID-19

• CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora says following the outbreak in the Broncos’ executive suite, the NFL is concerned about compliance among non-players with the league’s COVID-19 protocols. 
• The NFL is putting extra pressure on team personnel to follow guidelines on meetings, social distancing and wearing PPE. The league is also aware of teams that fall out of contention having less incentive to follow the guidelines and is trying to head that off. 
• A source tells La Canfora that the NFLPA is also working with players: “The (NFL)PA is fully on board with this. They are making a concerted effort to stay on the players and rely on veteran players exerting peer pressure in the locker room. It’s going to take a coordinated effort and everyone knows it. Everyone wants to get to a Super Bowl, but will everyone do what we all have to do in order to get there? That’s the fight.”