The NFL isn’t altering its fall plans.

The league will release its 2020 schedule late next week without any major changes, league spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed — including a Sept. 10 opener, the Super Bowl on Feb. 7 and visions of fans in the stands.

“We plan to start on time,” McCarthy said.

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported in mid-April that the league planned to release its schedule, based on a full season, by May 9. NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent told The Associated Press this week that the league is doing “reasonable and responsible planning” regarding health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic.

Not only is the NFL planning to release its regular-season schedule, but it is also plans to release its preseason schedule as well, including the Hall-of-Fame game, McCarthy told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

“If we have to make adjustments, we will be prepared to do so based on the latest guidance from our medical experts and public health officials and current and future government regulations,” McCarthy said.

“We made adjustments and conducted safely and efficiently key offseason activities such as free agency, the virtual off-season program and the 2020 NFL Draft.”

The league has evaluated contingency plans should the pandemic intensify, working in conjunction with the NFL Players Association and medical experts on a set of protocols.

One of those contingencies is delaying the season until mid-October, according to the Sports Business Journal. Empty stadiums and no bye weeks have long been discussed.

One option not on the table, a source told ESPN, is gathering players at a centralized location to execute a season. The NBA and Major League Baseball have discussed playing at a neutral site such as Walt Disney World, Las Vegas or Arizona, but the NFL doesn’t plan to do that.

The NFL schedule is not expected to include an influx of Saturday games, despite uncertainty about whether college football can start its season on time.

The league is evaluating when players can reenter team facilities. The NFL and NFLPA have agreed to keep buildings closed until every state in which a team resides lifts its stay-at-home mandate. Teams are prepared to conduct offseason workouts and June minicamps virtually.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will not accept a salary during the pandemic. The league raised more than $100 million for coronavirus relief during the NFL draft.

Tampa Bay radio host J.P. Peterson has obtained a purported Buccaneers schedule that includes five primetime games plus Thanksgiving in Detroit.  His Tampa Bay opener is Monday night against the Falcons.  We shall see if his sources are correct.

New York-based Peter King, all in on the view that Wuhan/COVID-19 is a plague, is a downer on what is ahead for 2020:

With the calendar turned to May, NFL business motors on with this week’s schedule release—which I do not think is a good idea, because of the decent to good chance that the schedule will need to be adjusted in some way before September. There’s no good reason why the schedule needs to be out now. Why put tickets on sale to September games when no one knows if fans will be allowed to attend them?

That brings me to this week’s column topic: To play this season, the NFL must accept that 2020 could be an imperfect, wholly unfair season. The sooner we accept that, the more we’ll be able to enjoy the most unique season in league history.

The Lead: 2020 Season

Roger Goodell was clear through the scouting and draft process that all things must be equal for all teams; if one team can’t open its facility, then no team can use its facility. Fair enough, and it was actually an unintended and lovely consequence that draft rooms this year were dining rooms and kitchens and home offices, with kids [and one dog] hanging out with GM and coach dads. “It was great to see all 32 teams be as efficient or almost as efficient in the draft while having a lot better quality of life,” said Seattle tight end Greg Olsen—and Americans everywhere seemed to agree.

Talking to smart people in and close to the league in the past few days, I got the impression the idea of an imperfect season is on the minds of many.

“At some point,” one top club executive said, “we’re going to have start accepting inequalities. What happens when teams in four states are told, ‘You can’t have training camp?’ Do those teams not have camp? Do they travel to a state that allows a gathering of 100 or so people to work? Time will tell, but the way it looks now, there’s no way all states are going to be under equal rules by the summer.”

“I’m very confident of a 16-game season with a Super Bowl in February,” said sports-business consultant Marc Ganis of SportsCorp Ltd. Ganis is a confidant of several owners and top league officials. “I didn’t say I was confident in 16 games with a bye, or what week in February the Super Bowl would be, or if every team will play eight games in their home stadiums, or whether there will be fans at every game. There’s more information that’s needed before we have these answers. Teams are just going to have be flexible.”

I put a lot of stock in Ganis’ words, because I know who he knows and I know how much NFL people value his advice. Asterisk to his points: I am not as confident of a 16-game season, nor are a couple of the smart people I spoke with for this column. I won’t be surprised if this is a 12 or 14-game season. But with the scheduled start of the regular season 18 weeks away, that’s a lot of time for many different alternatives to develop, and pressure points to come from all over—including the White House, which clearly wants sports to resume. So we can’t know now what shape the league will take this year, but we can have some ideas to consider.

The Schedule

The caveats of the season make this week’s release of the 256-game slate problematic. I’ve thought all along the new stadium in Los Angeles, SoFi Stadium, would host its first game in Week 1, quite possibly the marquee Cowboys-Rams game, and quite possibly in the NFL’s big Sunday night NBC window. But now with the end of stadium construction slowed due to the coronavirus and the real possibility that no fans would attend the game in a state, California, that has been uber-sensitive to crowds of any sort, would the NFL want to scrub that matchup and instead put the Sunday night opener in a place that is “opening up” more aggressively now?

As I’ve said in this space, it’s likely the NFL is making multiple schedules, in the case of a reduction to 14 or 12 or 10 games per team. Even a 16-game schedule could have major changes. It’s possible the schedule gets pushed back a week or four, and maybe the byes eliminated, but we can’t know that now. It’s also possible the league could choose to start four weeks late and simply kick off the schedule with the Week 5 games, beginning Oct. 8 . . . and take Weeks 1 through 4 and put them on the last four weekends in January. That would keep the bye week intact, which is likely important because the players union would fight to keep the in-season week off in place. In that scenario, playoffs would begin Feb. 6 with the Super Bowl on Feb. 28.

When the schedule comes out later this week, the one thing current events have done, most likely, is to make Tampa Bay a national team with new quarterback Tom Brady. I’d be surprised if the Bucs didn’t get scheduled for a prime-time game in Week 1, perhaps in one of the two ESPN windows on Monday.

The Players

I was on a call with reporters in April with the National Football League Players Association’s medical director, Thom Mayer, who was surveying the cloudy landscape. “We’ll go anywhere the science takes us and nowhere the science doesn’t,” Mayer said. “We’re going to look at everything as long as it keeps all 2,500 players safe.” I doubt you’d see any players say they were refusing to play. But if a team, for example, gets four or five positive tests of players, coaches or staff close together, would the league shut down that team and cancel its next game or two?

The Testing

Potentially sensitive. What if each of the 32 teams is testing its players and essential staff twice a week. (Obviously, they’ll have to be tested regularly, to ensure that no COVID-positive person spreads the disease in the close quarters of a football team.) Say that’s 150 people (players, coaches, staff). So 300 tests per week (17) per team (32)—that adds up to 163,000 tests for the regular season. Let’s round up for the full season: 200,000 tests for a sports league to play its full schedule. By August, will there be enough tests so that the NFL doesn’t seem piggish to be using 200,000 that could go to the general public? (Even half that number, 100,000 tests, is a major number if many in the country are going without.)

And teams will have to be willing, in the case of a positive test, to commit to placing that person in quarantine for two weeks. So the Kansas City Chiefs had better be comfortable with Chad Henne playing for two weeks or more if Patrick Mahomes tests positive. The Patriots had better be comfortable with Josh McDaniels coaching the team for two weeks if Bill Belichick tests positive.

The Fans

I could see the NFL, if and when fans are allowed to come to games, advising anyone over 70 to not come. I could see alcohol being banned at games for the year. (Meaning, theoretically, fewer trips to crowded rest rooms through crowded concourses by patrons.) With three teams in California, and Gov. Gavin Newsom having a hair-trigger about anything that draws a crowd, the NFL may have to determine if it’s willing to play games with fans in Tampa Bay, and games with no fans in California, for most of all of the season.

TV and The Media

I won’t be surprised if the major networks have their broadcast teams call games from studios. It wouldn’t be hard, for instance, for FOX to set up producers and directors for games on their massive lots in Los Angeles, and perhaps for CBS to do the same in studios in or near their studios in New York City. I’m sure it’d be weird for Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to sit eight feet apart in a soundproof booth in Hollywood to do a big 49ers-Seahawks doubleheader game, but it was weird for Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht to run a three-day draft from his kids’ spacious toyroom, and he managed pretty well.

As for writers and other media covering games, this might be a season of no trips to team facilities and no press box viewing—but a lot of watching games on TV and Zoom press conferences with coaches and players after the game.

Different Rules

The executive offices for Santa Clara (Calif.) County, Jeffrey Smith, said last month he doesn’t see any sports events in the county—home of the 49ers—until at least Thanksgiving. Could the 49ers at some point have to play games somewhere else? Could the 49ers play an imbalanced schedule, with more games on the road than at home? Think about how the sports landscape has changed in the last six weeks before you say, Absolutely not!

You have to consider that by August—when preparation for a full season would have to begin—that all rules for human contact and the gathering of even small crowds could still be different in some of the 50 states.

So there’s lots to think about. When you see the schedule come out this week, it’s okay to be excited and have anticipation. But don’t get married to it.

“I think you have to look at 2020 as an experimental year that is off-kilter,” one club executive of a major market team told me. “It’s a litmus test is how we adapt.”

– – –

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com investigates whether the NFL would like to be the only game in  town this fall, playing on Saturday and Sunday with colleges idle or whether it wants to share that stage as usual.

The NFL is indeed discussing the possibility of playing games on Saturdays in the event that college football doesn’t proceed with a season from September through December. As one source with direct knowledge of the discussions tells PFT, however, the league’s strong preference is for college football to happen, as scheduled.

No college football season or a delayed season (a February-May scenario has been mentioned) would dramatically complicate the NFL’s ability to scout players in advance of the 2021 draft.

“If there were to be no season, then we are going to have to scout off of either these guys’ freshman and sophomore tape only or freshman, sophomore, junior tape if they were going to be a rising senior,” Bills G.M. Brandon Beane recently said on the #PFTPM podcast.

If there’s no college season, some otherwise draft-eligible players may decide to stick around for 2021, assuming that they’d get an extra year of eligibility given that there was, you know, no season in 2020. Others, like Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, would likely say “see ya” to Saturday football, even after spending only two seasons there. (On that point, it would be interesting to see whether the NFL and NFLPA agree to extend the artificial three-year barrier to entry into the draft, forcing players like Lawrence to wait another year — and in turn to help college football make up for the money it would have lost in 2020.)

If the college football season plays out from February to May, the NFL would have to delay the draft, which would in turn delay the availability of players to join the offseason program, and which also would dramatically restrict the pre-draft evaluation process. It also would raise a very real question as to whether players who finished a football season in May should be expected to start another one in September.

So the best-case scenario for the NFL entails college football games being played during college football season. But if that can’t happen, the NFL would indeed attempt to backfill Saturdays with games that otherwise would be played on Sundays.

As the source explained it, that most likely would entail making specific games available on Saturdays exclusively via Amazon Prime or ESPN+, with streaming platforms paying a premium for content that would entice zealous NFL fans to in turn pay the premium necessary to watch the games. Those games would be removed from the FOX and CBS Sunday inventory, with the networks receiving a rebate (which would come in handy this year, given reduced advertising revenue) and with the NFL expecting to make back that cash and more via the next wave of broadcast deals.

It’s also possible that the league would expand its in-house Game Pass feature to include live Saturday games, selling the content directly to consumers who would, given the absence of college football, quite possibly fork over the kind of collective cash that the traditional broadcast networks couldn’t or wouldn’t for Saturday games.

However it plays out, don’t expect to see Saturdays play out like Sundays, with free content on three-letter networks (except in the home markets of the teams who play on Saturdays). The broadcast networks simply won’t want to buy those extra games, because it will be virtually impossible to for the broadcast networks turn a profit in the current climate.

None of it matters unless and until it becomes clear that college football won’t happen. Given the factors that make the league confident that the NFL season will proceed as scheduled, it’s reasonable to think that college football would be able to happen, too. And that’s the strongly preferred outcome both for college football and for the NFL.

– – –

Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com on the five players in the top 10 of the 2017 NFL Draft who did not have their fifth-year option picked up.

The Top 10 of the 2017 NFL draft had some notable misses.

That’s why half of the Top 10 picks had their fifth-year options declined. Generally speaking, a player who has performed up to expectations will have his fifth-year option picked up, while a player who has fallen short will have his option declined. And by that measure, half of the Top 10 fell short.

Second overall pick Mitch Trubisky, third overall pick Solomon Thomas, fourth overall pick Leonard Fournette, fifth overall pick Corey Davis and ninth overall pick John Ross all had their options declined. First overall pick Myles Garrett, sixth overall pick Jamal Adams, seventh overall pick Mike Williams and 10th overall pick Patrick Mahomes all had their options picked up. Eighth overall pick Christian McCaffrey got a contract extension before the fifth-year option deadline.

Top 10 picks have more expensive fifth-year options than picks 11-32. The fifth-year salary for Top 10 picks is equal to the average of the 10 highest salaries at that player’s position, whereas for players 11-32, the fifth-year option is the average of the third through 25th highest salaries at the position. For example, Mahomes’ fifth-year option is $24.8 million, while 12th overall pick Deshaun Watson‘s fifth-year option is $17.5 million. That means Top 10 picks have to really produce for their options to be worth it.

Looming over the 2017 draft Top 10 is Mahomes, who through three years already has both a regular season MVP and a Super Bowl MVP to his credit. If they’re being honest, all nine teams that passed on Mahomes would say they regret it. But the five teams who passed on Mahomes just to draft a player whose option wasn’t picked up are the ones really kicking themselves.

CHICAGO

Chicago’s infatuation only goes so far as the Bears decline QB MITCH TRUBISKY’s 5^thyear option.  Jason Lieser and Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times:

The Bears will not pick up the fifth-year option on quarterback Mitch Trubisky’s rookie contract, allowing him to be an unrestricted free agent after this season, a source confirmed to the Sun-Times on Saturday afternoon.

The option would’ve paid him $24.8 million, though the team could’ve released him by the start of the next league year in March and avoided paying it.

Trubisky’s outlook was bleak once the Bears traded for veteran Nick Foles and declared an open competition for the starting job. They guaranteed him $21 million and his contract runs through 2022 unless he opts out.

Bears general manager Ryan Pace traded four picks to draft Trubisky No. 2 overall in 2017. He made the Pro Bowl as an injury alternate after his second season. Rather than make a leap in 2019, he struggled. He bottomed out last season with an 83.0 passer rating, which ranked 28th in the NFL.

The decision was due by 11:59 p.m. Monday. Pace has spent the offseason avoiding the topic — in five different media gatherings, he refused to say whether or not the Bears would give Trubisky the option.

Trubisky is the highest-drafted quarterback of the fifth-year option era, which began in 2011, to have his option declined at the deadline. Robert Griffin III, another second overall pick, had his option picked up but was cut by the Redskins the following March.

The last No. 2 overall pick to have his option declined was Rams offensive tackle Greg Robinson three years ago.

He becomes the second Pace draft pick to have his option declined, joining receiver Kevin White. Cornerback Kyle Fuller, a Phil Emery pick, had his option declined by Pace but re-signed with the team after his fourth season. Pace picked up outside linebacker Leonard Floyd’s option last year, but cut him in March and signed veteran edge rusher Robert Quinn.

– – –

The Khalil Mack trade is now complete.  Peter King:

Chicago traded first and sixth-round picks in 2019 and first and third-round picks in 2020 for pass-rusher Khalil Mack and second and seventh-round picks in 2020.

Chicago got Mack, tight end Cole Kmet and guard Arlington Hambright.

Las Vegas got running back Josh Jacobs, tight end Foster Moreau (not in that exact draft slot because the pick was traded twice more), cornerback Damon Arnette and wideout Bryan Edwards.

Mack played hurt last year; his 21 sacks in 30 Chicago games would have been higher if he’d been healthy. He’s still the best player in this deal. If Kmet’s a good NFL tight end, the win here will go to Chicago. That’s a big if. Jacobs will be Jon Gruden’s feature back for the next three years, most likely. Moreau’s a usable tight end and good value pick. Arnette seemed a reach at the 19th overall pick this year, but we’ll see.

DETROIT

We admit to forgetting that someone named LB JARRAD DAVIS was a first round pick in 2017.  Adam Maya of NFL.com:

Count Jarrad Davis among the 2017 first-round picks playing for a new contract in 2020.

The Lions are not expected to pick up his fifth-year option, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported. That would open the door for Davis to hit free agency after the season.

Davis has been serviceable at times over his first three seasons in Detroit. The middle linebacker tallied a carer-high 100 tackles and six sacks in 2018. His numbers and performance dipped in 2019, however, while losing five games to injury. Davis would finish with 63 tackles, two sacks and three forced fumbles.

The Lions chose Davis with the No. 21 overall pick three years ago. They did not draft his replacement last week but could be looking for it depending on how the upcoming season plays out

He was a Bob Quinn draft pick as Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com reminds us:

Davis has been average. How the Lions choose to use him this season after the additions of Jamie Collins Sr. and Reggie Ragland could give a glimpse to his future. Linebacker was a clear need then, but in hindsight, Detroit could have gone with T.J. Watt in that case or looked at cornerback Tre’Davious White or running back Dalvin Cook, all of whom would have filled needs and ended up in Pro Bowls.

GREEN BAY

Peter King thinks that QB AARON RODGERS will be able to believe that GM Brian Gutenkust forced QB JORDAN LOVE onto the Packers roster without the support of his coach Matt LaFleur:

For all attentive to the Aaron Rodgers/Jordan Love saga (who isn’t?) I’d highly recommend this interview Rodgers did with his former teammate and buddy A.J. Hawk on “The HawkCast” podcast. It’s very insightful. Hawk recorded it three weeks ago, and it’s lengthy. What comes through strongly is the high regard Rodgers has for coach Matt LaFleur and his appreciation for the fateful draft drop in 2005 that landed him in Green Bay.

On LaFleur, Rodgers said: “He just cares about [football] so much. He loves the competition part of it. I’m just by nature a little more calm on game days. He’s definitely more amped up. So we’re a good balance for each other. He helps me get into the game mode. When s—’s getting a little bit dicey, I can kind of help him settle down a little bit. We’re a really good balance for each other.” He said he thought LaFleur, as a first-year head coach, “handled himself really well. It was all new for him. He’s doing everything for the first time.”

On falling to the 24th pick in the ’05 draft and going to Green Bay: “It’s the best thing that happened to me. I’m so glad. Who knows what would have happened if I’d gone one [to San Francisco], or three to Cleveland or five to Tampa Bay or eight to Arizona or 15 to New Orleans? Yeah, would have been a lot different. Or 23 to Oakland . . . I get it. I’m so fortunate, and appreciative the way it worked out. And also, I needed a little bit of that humility as well. That’s never a bad thing.”

Three weeks later, I asked Hawk what his friend might be thinking now.

“It does make me wonder now what their relationship will be like,” Hawk said of Rodgers and LaFleur. “I think Aaron’s relationship with Jordan Love will be great. Aaron will be open with him. I think the frustrating part for him, and for the organization, will be this story will not go away after the first press conference for Aaron when the team finally is back together. It’ll keep coming up—not just this year. It probably doesn’t help that [Rodgers and LaFleur] probably won’t be in the same room for a while.”

My take: I don’t think Rodgers should be miffed at LaFleur. I doubt LaFleur pushed for Love. The Green Bay chain of command is crystal clear. The general manager has draft and free-agent authority. The coach coaches the team. I’ve thought LaFleur, steeped in the timing-and-rhythm passing game, would want Rodgers to be more of a timing and rhythm quarterback, getting the ball out quick, instead of sometimes waiting and stringing a play along. Of course, that can be the genius of Rodgers too, waiting and waiting and then making a huge play. But I also don’t think that’s enough for LaFleur to want Rodgers gone.

Rodgers is a smart guy, and he knows this was probably a Brian Gutekunst pick. Will he think LaFleur should have argued against it and lobbied for a receiver instead? (Which he may have done.) Hawk’s right: The best thing for the Packers right now if for LaFleuer and Rodgers to sit in the same room soon, or the same virtual room, and lay all cards on the table. They’ve talked. But have they said everything that needs to be said? If the Packers aren’t in the same place till, say, August, that’s a long time for feelings to harden.  And if the Packers are serious about being more of a power team, as taking a 247-pound back in the second round and a tight end in the third might indicate, that’s something LaFleur and his quarterback need to discuss at length. Green Bay’s pass-run ratio last year was 59.8-40.2 percent. Going closer to 50-50 would be neutering one of the best passers in the game. All things that will make the Green Bay camp—if there’s going to be one—the most interesting in football to monitor this summer, or fall.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com sees it the way the DB does – this is the last season in Green Bay for Rodgers if the Packers have an indifferent campaign – no matter how Rodgers himself plays.

It’s become a given, given the decision to draft quarterback Jordan Love and to not draft any receivers, that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers may have only two years left with the team. What if it’s only one year?

The salary cap consequences seem to prevent a divorce through 2021, since the cap hit after this year would become $31.556 million ($23 million from his original signing bonus, plus $8.556 million from the partial conversion of a 2019 roster bonus). But here’s the thing: Keeping Rodgers in 2021 will result in a $36.352 million cap charge. Thus, the Packers would actually create $4.796 million in cap space — and save $22 million in cash — by trading Rodgers before a $6.8 million roster bonus becomes due on the third day of the 2021 league year.

With Love operating under a wage-scale deal, it will be easy to justify eating $31.556 million in cap space when the number would be higher to keep Rodgers, and when he likely wouldn’t be willing to agree to another restructuring that would kick the cap can down the road.

The Packers also could probably get more in trade for Rodgers at 37 than at 38, and a trade would avoid what would/could/will be a second year of awkwardness at best, acrimony at worst as Rodgers becomes the odd man out in Green Bay.

So forget about two years. This year could be the last year for the Packers and Rodgers, massive cap charge be damned.

Can a representation agency keep the peace?  Peter King:

Athletes First, based in southern California, is one of the dominant agencies representing NFL players and coaches.

Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur is repped by Athletes First.

Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers is repped by Athletes First.

Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love is repped by Athletes First.

DALLAS

The Cowboys make a move that leaves them prepared to compete in 2020 even if QB DAK PRESCOTT does not come to terms.  QB ANDY DALTON, with plenty of experience, some of it quite good, will be signed to a one year deal.

Peter King is all in on the move:

I think that is a brilliant signing by the Cowboys, getting Andy Dalton for one year between $3 million and $7 million. You might think I’m overstating “brilliant,” but Dalton is a solid football guy, a football-loving, shut-up-and-play guy who will be good either playing or backing up and supporting Dak Prescott. He won’t be great. But tell me which backups in the NFL are great? And tell me which backups in the NFL quarterbacked their teams to the playoffs five times? Smart signing, particularly when the Prescott fate is so uncertain. If Prescott boycotts the offseason program in his contract stalemate and Dalton is there every day, who knows? Would Mike McCarthy dare start Dalton when the real games start? I doubt it, but it’s a storyline to follow.

• There was never one time in eight years as a Bengal that Dalton did anything on or off the field that was bush league, anything that would make you ashamed to have him be your quarterback.

• It got ugly at the end. Dalton lost 14 of his last 16 starts in Cincinnati. Did Dalton blame anyone? (Maybe he did, quietly, but I never heard anything like that.) Did he quietly in the locker room wonder why this guy or that guy was slow to come back from an injury, or any such cancerous chatter? Not that I know of. He took his medicine, made his money, and came back the next day trying to win. Yes, he had a talent ceiling. But he never made an excuse.

I think I would ask you one other thing: If Joe Burrow wins 50 games in his first five years and made the playoffs each year, would the fans applaud Burrow? I think so.

I think, if I ran an NFL team, and I really was skeptical about my backup quarterback’s ability to play a few winning games, I’d concentrate on finding a competent backup, and now. What happens if you play games and the starter is asymptomatic but tests positive for the virus one week and has to be quarantined for 14 days? You can call that a ridiculous suggestion, but lots of things that seems ridiculous two months ago are fact today.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com thinks what had been unthinkable:

Presumably, Andy Dalton becomes the backup to Dak Prescott in Dallas. But with Prescott not yet accepting a franchise tender with a value in excess of $31 million, it’s reasonable to ask the question posed in the headline of this item: Would the Cowboys rescind Dak’s tender?

Until Prescott accepts the one-year offer, the Cowboys have the ability to yank it. And Dalton gives Dallas an intriguing bird in the hand in the event that the Cowboys can’t work something out with Prescott and potentially decide, depending on the whims of owner/G.M. Jerry Jones, to rescind the franchise tender, making Dalton the Dallas starter and saving well over $20 million in the process.

While that’s highly unlikely, stranger things have happened. And if coach Mike McCarthy, who has no history with Prescott, is comfortable with Dalton and if Jerry and Stephen Jones grow sufficiently weary of Dak’s demands, it’s impossible to completely and entirely rule out the possibility of a Texas native taking over America’s Team.

It that were to happen, what would happen with Dak? The starting jobs are set for most teams, and those that would consider Prescott (primarily, the Patriots and the Jaguars) don’t have the cap space to give him the kind of money he’d make in Dallas, if he were to accept the tender.

Beyond New England and Jacksonville, which other teams would even consider turning their plans for 2020 upside down and signing Dak to the kind of deal he’s demanding in Dallas? Would the Jets bench Sam Darnold? Would the Browns bump Baker Mayfield? Would the Raiders jettison Derek Carr? Would Washington pull the plug on Dwayne Haskins?

With the Cowboys to date intent on keeping Dak, the question of whether and to what extent another team would make a move for Prescott has yet to be raised. Budgets have been set and money has been spent and if the Cowboys wait until, say, July to make the move, Prescott would be very hard pressed to find a landing spot.

Again, it’s unlikely. But it’s a suddenly fascinating possibility, and it gives the Cowboys a little extra leverage at a time when they otherwise have none.

It wasn’t that long ago that the question surrounding QB JAMEIS WINSTON was whether or not he would be signing for $20 million per year or $30+ like he wanted.  Now, he’s playing for pennies on that dollar in New Orleans.

Could Prescott end up similarly shortchanged?

We wonder what CAM NEWTON’s asking price is right now?  As far down as Winston’s?

Could the Cowboys get Dalton AND Newton for $15 mil combined for both, instead of paying Prescott $31?

At this point, DREW LOCK in Denver, JARRETT STIDHAM in New England and GARDNER MINSHEW in Jacksonville are practically uncontested starters with 10 combined NFL wins between them.

Meanwhile Dalton, Winston, Newton and MARCUS MARIOTA are backups or unemployed with 195 combined wins.

NEW ORLEANS

Peter King on JAMEIS WINSTON vs. TAYSOM HILL in the DREW BREES QB succession battle:

I think I’d still make the Saints starting QB job Taysom Hill’s to lose, when the 2021 season opens, if Brees indeed retires. This gap year for Jameis Winston in New Orleans will be a challenge for him to prove he can switch from the mistake-prone guy he’s been for five years into an efficient player. And this increases the challenge for Hill to prove he deserves the faith Sean Payton has placed in him.

Having had multiple conversations with Payton about his future quarterback plans, I know he believes Hill has a chance to be a Steve Young type in and out of the pocket, but until he does it, that’s all just a educated feeling for Payton. I know Payton will not stand for a quarterback who turns it over like Winston has. (Picks since 2015: Winston 88, Drew Brees 43.)

Here’s the problem as I see it: If Brees starts every game this season, how will Payton really know what he has in Winston, and whether Winston’s made any progress on the turnovers? He recruited Winston hard for one reason, I believe: He wants another quarterback to look at, to be insurance in case he gets to the end of this season and doesn’t really know if Hill is his long-term answer.

Problem is, of course, Payton may not see much of either behind center this year if Brees is an ironman. So this is a chemistry experiment. Making the QB decision after the season is why the Saints pay Payton the big bucks.

SAN FRANCISCO

We’re wondering if newly-retired T JOE STALEY might have a future as a television analyst after reading this from Nick Wagoner at ESPN.com:

After Joe Staley’s mostly nondescript freshman season at Central Michigan, coach Brian Kelly had a radical idea: ask Staley to pack on the pounds and muscle necessary to move from tight end to offensive tackle.

Kelly, now the head coach at Notre Dame, got some resistance from Butch Staley, Joe’s dad. But Kelly was quick to offer assurances that if Staley was able to gain the size needed to hold up at offensive tackle, his speed and athleticism would one day make him a premier NFL tackle and a wealthy man.

So when a sophomore Staley stepped on the practice field early in his transition to tackle, he found himself lined up opposite defensive end Dan Bazuin. Bazuin was one of the team’s best players and would leave the school as the career leader in sacks and tackles for loss on his way to becoming a second-round NFL draft pick in 2007.

As Kelly recalls, it didn’t go so well for Staley. Not that you’d have known it from his reaction.

“Dan was having his way with Joe Staley,” Kelly said. “Joe had just moved to tackle and I remember Joe getting up [and] he was pulling the grass and dirt away from his face after getting knocked down for the third or fourth time and he had a big smile on his face, and he turned to me and says, ‘Boy, I’m really gonna love this challenge.’ That was Joe Staley.”

After 13 distinguished seasons as the San Francisco 49ers’ left tackle, Staley walked away from the NFL last week. Not because he wanted to. In fact, his head and heart were still all-in on the game he loved since he was a kid. It was his body that would simply no longer allow it, and Staley couldn’t fathom not having the kind of future he wanted with his family.

Staley takes with him plenty of accolades as he heads into retirement. He earned six Pro Bowl nods, was a three-time second-team All Pro, won two NFC championships and landed on the NFL’s All-Decade Team for the 2010s.

Staley’s consistent excellence has teammates stumping for his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame already.

“I think he’s a Hall of Famer, without a doubt,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “That’s a no-brainer … But something that’s really not talked about with Joe is the impact he made on the game of football … He affected 15 years’ worth of offensive linemen of when you turn on how a left tackle is supposed to play football in a complete game, it’s not just the fancy pass pro, the great athlete; Joe was the most complete offensive tackle of his generation and that’s something I think should without a doubt be entrenched into the Hall of Fame.”

All of that is only a small part of the imprint Staley leaves on the game.

The on-field achievements speak for themselves, but it was Staley’s ability to genuinely enjoy every second as a football player that made him a fan favorite. It’s the reason so many took to social media to share their favorite Staley memories in the hours after he announced his retirement and the reason his former teammates and coaches offered a similar outpouring of support.

Take tight end George Kittle, for example. As a fellow aficionado of fun and football, Kittle’s approach to the game mirrors Staley’s. When Kittle entered the league as a rookie in 2017, Staley helped show him how to strike the balance between having the maximum amount of fun while also taking his job seriously enough to excel.

“He does such a great job of that,” Kittle said. “He did it day in and day out … Just by being himself every day is what showed me how to do it. He’s just like, just don’t be something you’re not. If you’re going to show up and be that, then show up and be that guy every single day. And I think that he said that to multiple people, but it definitely struck a chord with me.”

When Staley arrived in San Francisco as a first-round pick in 2007, he was a bit apprehensive. He was a bit shy when it came to speaking publicly to the point that he says he would get nervous talking to the student reporters from the Central Michigan school newspaper.

Unwilling to let his personality shine right away, Staley earned the nickname “G.I. Joe” as a rookie because he took everything so seriously. Soon enough, it occurred to Staley that to reach his potential, he needed to cut it loose and be as authentic as possible every single day.

That manifested in multiple ways, such as the infamous “Joe Show,” a humor-driven interview show Staley hosted every week with various teammates on the Niners’ team website. Former teammate Patrick Willis recalls appearing on the show and Staley coercing him into saying something “so country” that Willis couldn’t believe he said it on camera.

“I loved how Joe came to practice every day,” Willis said. “How he was serious when he’s also loose with it. And I learned along the way, too, that you could be serious about your craft, and you could be serious about your game, but it’s also important to make sure you’d be loose and keep yourself balanced because, if not, one is just as bad as the other.”

Last season, Staley was caught miked up with Kittle doing a bit on the sideline in which they had a conversation in heavy Canadian accents.

And, of course, Staley’s passion for karaoke was never far from the surface, either.

All of it was a means to an end, as Staley developed a unique understanding of when to flip the switch between fun and serious.

“You’ve got to understand at the end of the day, you play in the NFL and we play football,” Staley said. “As much as we all think it’s the most serious thing in the world, it’s a game and it’s a fun game that we’re privileged to play for a lot of people that enjoy what we do and bring entertainment to people. At the end of the day, it’s the entertainment business and you’ve got to have fun with what you’re doing. You can take things very serious while you’re doing that, but you’re also enjoying it. Enjoying what you do, bringing in a spirit of laughter, and you can bring all that to the table every single day when you come to work.”

The old saying goes that if you find a job you enjoy doing, you never have to work a day in your life. Staley’s body might argue to the contrary, but his body of work says his ultimate legacy was that there was never a day he didn’t have an absolute blast doing his job.

And that, more than anything, is why he did it so well for so long.

– – –

The 49ers might have taken WR BRANDON AIYUK at #13 if Tampa Bay had not arrived for a trade down.  Peter King:

Niners had CeeDee Lamb and Brandon Aiyuk “very evenly matched” atop their receiver board.

• Lynch: “I think it was two days before the draft, I said to Kyle, you know what? I know people might raise some eyebrows, but I really don’t care. At 13, if we get stuck and we can’t trade out, I’d be perfectly happy taking Aiyuk. And he said, I’m so glad you said that ‘cause I feel the same way! I think we knew at that point that he had really become a guy that we had become intrigued with. I think the combination of strength and speed and separation ability and then the advantage, I think in a year like this, you have to trust relationships more than ever before. [Arizona State coach] Herm Edwards, he’s the godparent to my youngest daughter. I’m his son’s godparent. He coached me for a long time. One of my closest friends in the world. I called Herm and I said, ‘Herm, give me the skinny on this kid.’ One of the things he talked about is just how competitive and how important it was for Brandon to be great. That spoke to me and spoke to us.”

KANSAS CITY

Of all the amazing people in the NFL, and there are plenty, just as there are plenty of knuckleheads, the most accomplished may be G LAURENT DUVERNEY-TARDIF of the Chiefs who is a medical doctor and active player.  He is spending his offseason at ground zero of the Canadian version of the Wuhan/COVID-19 plague.  He tells his story to Greg Bishop of SI.com:

I went back to Montreal after the (Super Bowl victory) celebration. Life was chaotic then, but in a different way. I had two hectic weeks of appearances, including my own parade in Montreal, where like 4,000 people showed up in the snow to cheer me on. To see that community of Chiefs fans north of the border was touching for me.

I hold a doctorate in medicine. I don’t have a specialty yet, and I haven’t done the residency portion of the program. And while I don’t watch many games on television, I do know how big of an industry sport is. When the NBA halted its operation and so did the NHL, it really hit me. I remembered the reporter from the Super Bowl and her question.

I went on vacation on Feb. 28, leaving with my girlfriend, Florence, to sail on a rented 40-foot-long boat around the Caribbean, just the two of us. I had to decompress. There hadn’t been a day when I wasn’t super busy since well before the Super Bowl. And I knew that when I came back from the trip, my work at the LDT Foundation would demand much of my time. Our mission is to promote the balance of sport, art and study in 10 different local schools, and the programs we do take place every week. I was ready to rest and dive back in and resume my training with a fresh mindset.

On the water, our Wi-Fi was not always good. But I kept up to date with the virus, when it first moved to South Korea, then a few countries in Asia, then Iran, then Europe and then the U.S. Eventually, I knew we needed to get back to Montreal, and we changed our departure date to March 12 because we didn’t want to get stuck. As we were boarding the plane, I got an alert on my phone saying that starting that night at midnight there was going to be an isolation period for every traveler coming back from outside Canada.

On the return flight, I remember there were kids in front of me, or to the side, and they were climbing on stuff or spitting everywhere. Families were giving each other iPads. People were talking about how they were going to go back to work the next day. I wondered: Am I the only one who actually heard that? I asked, “Do you guys know that you’re supposed to stay at home for 14 days?”

“No way,” many of them said. “Are you kidding me?”

I don’t blame them. If you don’t read the news when you’re on vacation, you don’t think about that stuff. And coming back, I remember grabbing my backpack from the carousel and looking at those people in the airport and thinking, there’s just no way those people are going to stay home for 14 days. There’s no way all of these people tomorrow are just not going to go to work. Next thing you know there’s like four billion people in the world who are doing that. And that’s only in a month. It’s wild how everything went so fast.

The difference between the moment I left and the moment I came back was so intense. I had only wanted to get away, and then I wished I had never left. Everything had stopped.

We did 14 days in isolation. By the time we finished, pretty much every state and every province and every country was at the same kind of place. It was an adjustment. All the schools for the foundation had closed. You start asking: Are we going to cancel our charity golf tournament in June? Our big auction in April? Plus, the border is closed. It’s not like I could get back to Kansas City, with my teammates, when we were supposed to begin training for next season.

At the same time, I realize that I’m privileged. I didn’t lose my job. I don’t have three kids at home and a Zoom meeting and home school to teach. I know a bunch of my friends are going through difficult times; many are physicians who I met in medical school. I have friends who are working in emergency rooms. One does triage and tests patients for COVID-19. Those people are on the front line, and they’re giving everything to protect us. I don’t want to complain or anything. Because at the end of the day, I have a nice apartment, and I’m working from home, and I’m lifting from home.

Soon into the crisis I started to ask how I could help. I reached out to the health ministry and public health authorities, but found out that I fell into a gray area where they didn’t know what to do with me, because I don’t have a license to practice—yet. In the interim, officials briefed me on an almost daily basis, and I used my platform and credentials to relay their messages. In Montreal, for a while, the age group most infected was people between 20 and 29, so there was an issue with enforcing those social distancing measures. I tried to reinforce the need for them.

I did a bunch of interviews with different media entities, and one day, while doing them from my apartment, I looked out and saw people gathering at a picnic table in plain sight. It was so frustrating. You know, this is not like a disease where there’s a simple, magical pill, to make it go away. It’s a virus. The best we can do is supportive measures. It’s simple: Stay home and try to minimize your interactions with people. Follow the guidelines. We need a vaccine, and it’s going to take another year or so to get it.

If we don’t follow the guidelines, more people are going to die. The mortality rate is going to be closer to 5 percent than 1 percent, where it should be. If you stay at home, it’s relatively easy, when you think about all those doctors like my friends who are at risk. They’re doing that to protect us. It’s irrational to not respect those measures. It’s such a small individual sacrifice for the greater benefit.

A few days ago, health ministry officials started a campaign to recruit health care professionals, especially students in medicine and nursing. It’s now possible for me to go back and help. I had already wanted to, but when it’s real, it hits you, the gravity involved. Now, the discussion shifts from I want to go back to how am I going to go back? I discussed with my girlfriend whether we will continue to sleep in the same bed or live in the same apartment. These conversations made me realize even more the sacrifices that people in health care, on the front line, are making.

I had to check in with the Chiefs from a contract standpoint. They’ve been amazing. They were proud of the fact that I wanted to go help. They said they would support me.

First, I registered for a crash course, where I reviewed the basics of how to put a surgical gown on and learn all the steps for sanitizing, because that stuff is more important than ever, to protect not only yourself but your patients. Then I would most likely end up in a long-term care facility, because that is really where they need people in Quebec and in Canada in general. We got hit hard in those places. They need help to replace the health care workers who have been sick and to help with the increasing demand, because of the increasing number of cases and because all the measures taken to protect health workers and patients slow down the operation.

My first day back in the hospital was April 24. I felt nervous the night before, but a good nervous, like before a game, and I packed everything neatly: scrubs, white coat, extra pens, even a second pair of shoes that I could leave in my locker, knowing they were clean. I wasn’t aware the Chiefs had drafted a running back that night in the first round, even though I will block for my future teammate, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, from LSU.

I was assigned to a long-term care facility near my hometown on the South Shore, which is about an hour from Montreal. On my drive in, I thought about my own draft experience, back in 2014, when I missed a second-day draft party at my house because I was working at the hospital, in an intensive care unit, helping with an emergency C-section. The Chiefs took me the next day, in the sixth round.

My shift started at 7:30 a.m. I found out that I would be working for now in more of a nursing role, helping relieve the workers who have already been in place. There’s so much that needs to happen just to visit with every patient—masks donned and hands washed and equipment like gloves and visors tugged on and off and thrown away. I handled a medication cart, making sure to administer the right dosage and in the proper way. Honestly, I was drained after—and looking forward to going back.

There was one positive test for COVID-19 at the same facility. Officials had set up a makeshift space in the cafeteria with 15 beds to be filled any time a patient comes down with symptoms. So far, due to those types of measures, the virus has not spread to other patients yet.

It’s wild to think that just 10 weeks earlier I played in the biggest game in sports. I was reminded of that even at the facility, when one of the people training me turned and said, “You’re the football player, right?” When I answered yes, he said, “Bro, you just won the Super Bowl.” Indeed, I told him, and now I just want to help.

Playing in the Super Bowl vs. heading back to the medical system during a pandemic is totally different. Back in February, I knew that 100 million-plus people were going to be watching, and I wanted to win. When you’re going in to help it’s more about your duty as a doctor and a citizen. It’s not the time to be the hero and be impulsive. You’ve gotta do it the right way. You’ve gotta really take this seriously when it comes to washing your hands, not touching anything. I know it sounds silly; it’s simple stuff. But when you’re in a long-term care facility where there are cases, you know for sure you’re going to be exposed if you don’t take those appropriate measures. You know there’s risk involved.

Now, the big topic is how we’re going to return the economy. How fast is too fast? And we can extrapolate that to sports in general. Sport is really important; it’s a connective tissue for society. But it is not an essential business. It’s going to be interesting to see what will happen when it comes to baseball, hockey, basketball and, eventually, football in September.

Well over half of Canada’s 3,700 Wuhan/COVID-19 deaths have come in Quebec.

CINCINNATI

Peter King on the ANDY DALTON legacy in a reply to a reader:

From Aleksander Egebjerg, via Twitter: “Love how [you] emphasize wins as a product of Dalton’s play, when clearly Dalton lost more games than he won. Top 5 defense, top 3 OL, top 5 skill position. And no playoff victories. He was never any better than average and held one of the best Cincy teams back.”

I checked your assertions, Aleksander. Let’s go over them:

• Dalton was 70-61-2 as a starter in the regular season, 70-65-2 including playoffs.

• Bengals defensive ranks (yards allowed) in Dalton’s first seven seasons, when he started 16 games six times and 13 once: 7, 6, 3, 22, 11, 17, 18. In those seven seasons, Cincinnati was in the top five in scoring defense once.

• In those seven seasons, left tackle Andrew Whitworth was first-team All-Pro once and second-team once. No other Bengals offensive lineman showed up on the Associated Press All-Pro first or second teams in those seven years.

• In those seven seasons, A.J. Green was second-team All-Pro twice. No other Cincinnati receiver, back or tight end was first or second-team All-Pro in those seven years.

• You did get one thing right. He was 0-4 in the playoffs.

Dalton’s four abysmal playoff games make him a fair target; he never lifted the Bengals in January the way he lifted them in the regular season, and so you can’t call him a top quarterback in his era, or close. But teams don’t win 52 games in five seasons (Cincinnati’s win total from 2011 to 2015, Dalton’s first five years) when the quarterback is an innocent bystander.

JACKSONVILLE

It’s a “no” for the fifth-year option of RB LEONARD FOURNETTE.  Michael DiRocco ofESPN.com:

The Jacksonville Jaguars have declined the fifth-year option on running back Leonard Fournette for the 2021 season.

It’s an unsurprising and expected move considering the team was attempting to trade the former fourth overall pick for a month before and during the recent NFL draft.

Fournette will make $4.168 million in 2020 and then become a free agent, unless the team changes its mind and uses the franchise tag.

NEW ENGLAND

Right or wrong (and who are we to say they are wrong), it looks like the Patriots really, really, really believe in QB JARRETT STIDHAM.

Some insider tweets.

Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald on April 24:

@jeffphowe

Bill Belichick has essentially declared Jarrett Stidham is better than any QB they could have realistically drafted this weekend.

Rich Ohrnburger who played for the Patriots:

@ohrnberger

I’ve heard it now from A LOT of people close to the Patriots.  They really believe in Jarrett Stidham.

Like it or not, Stidham is not a cheap placeholder… he’s the future.

Someone called NickAndOne has sources:

@NickAndOne_

League sources tell me Tom Brady left the Patriots “due to the emergence of Jarrett Stidham.” There were rumblings Belichick was not even going to make an effort to sign Brady, because he saw a Stidham outplaying the 42 year old everyday in practice. Wow.

Will Brinson of CBS Sports:

@WillBrinson

The Patriots are trying to tell you they like Jarrett Stidham.

Listen to them already.

Doug Kyen of NESN.com:

“What we do know is that (Jarrett) Stidham would be a better choice next season than overdrafting a player like Jordan Love or Jacob Eason when no one knows if they’ll even be better than Stidham long term.”

 I stand by that. Here’s another nugget: I was told after the draft that the Patriots like Stidham more than they liked Jimmy Garoppolo. And I know what you’re thinking: “typical Patriots spin.” That ain’t it. This isn’t coming from someone who stands to gain anything by pumping up the Patriots. We’ll find out if the team is right to believe that or not. But it’s not insane.

Stidham was a very highly-touted quarterback prospect after his first two starting seasons in college. His junior year was a bit of a disaster because Auburn’s offense was a mess. He still managed to show some potential. But if that junior season had gone more favorably, then Stidham would have wound up being a first- or second-round pick rather than a fourth. Stidham played well in the preseason, and he continued to improve in practice throughout the regular season. The Patriots have only grown to like Stidham more since drafting him.

So, why are the Patriots going to give up on a player they think might be better than Garoppolo for a veteran QB like Cam Newton or Andy Dalton? Newton is a great player. Is he definitely better than Garoppolo right this second after missing most of the 2019 season? Dalton has more upside as a backup than Brian Hoyer. But in an ideal world, is he beating out Stidham? Not a chance. I never thought drafting Jordan Love was realistic in the first round. And the Patriots weren’t going to take Jalen Hurts over their second-round pick Kyle Dugger.

So, for now, they’re rolling with Stidham. After years of spending top salary capital on a quarterback, the Patriots are using up less than $1.9 million worth of cap space on Stidham and Hoyer. That makes a world of sense while the Patriots are up against the cap.

The Patriots have now not re-signed Tom Brady, passed on trading for Nick Foles, didn’t sign Teddy Bridgewater, Case Keenum, Phillip Rivers, Marcus Mariota or Jameis Winston, have shown no interest in Newton and didn’t draft Jordan Love, Jalen Hurts, Jacob Eason, James Morgan or Jake Fromm.

What further proof do you need that the Patriots really, really like Stidham?

This from Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

As we get deeper into the offseason and the Patriots continue to stand pat at quarterback, it looks increasingly likely that Jarrett Stidham will be tasked with succeeding Tom Brady. Stidham’s college coach thinks he’s ready.

Auburn coach Gus Malzahn says Stidham knows what it takes to lead a team in big games and can do it at the next level.

“It definitely helped him to learn under the best and see what that looks like, but he’s the kind of young man, too, this is what he’s been waiting on. I’ll tell you, the moment won’t be too big for him. He’ll be up to the challenge, that’s what I expect,” Malzahn told ESPN.com. “Even when he got here, before he played his first game, you could just kind of tell he was a mature young man. Like a gym rat, always at the complex trying to learn, study film. When he got drafted by the Patriots [in 2019], I thought it was a perfect spot for him system-wise — spreading the field. He’s so good with protections, changing protections, and scheme-wise everything that goes with it, and just the flexibility the scheme gives him. I think that really applies to his strength.”

The 133rd overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, Stidham played only very sparingly as a rookie, totaling two completions on four attempts for 14 yards, with one interception and one sack. He’s poised to have a very big impact, one way or the other, in New England this year.

THIS AND THAT

2020 DRAFT

Peter King points out that dinosaurs have drafted the last three RBs in the top 10.

This draft continued the devaluation of the running back. It’s a fairly consistent trend. Derrick Henry (45th pick in 2016), Jonathan Taylor (41st pick this year), Alvin Kamara (67th pick in 2017) and Dobbins (55th this year) going so low would not have happened early this century. In the 10 drafts from 2001 to 2010, NFL teams picked 21 backs in the top 25 of the draft. In the 10 drafts from 2011 to 2020, only eight backs went in the top 25.

I also wonder about another factor: the traditionalists who made the last three high running-back picks. In 2017, Jacksonville VP of Football Operations Tom Coughlin picked Leonard Fournette fourth overall, and Carolina GM Dave Gettleman picked Christian McCaffrey eighth. Then Gettleman got fired, and the Giants hired him as GM late in the 2017 season. In 2018, Gettleman picked Saquon Barkley second overall. Where do those three players go in those drafts if GMs with a more analytic bend (translated: don’t think it’s smart to take a running back so high) were running those teams?

The draft is risky business at all positions; we see that every year. But with so many productive backs taken after round one, taking running backs very high could be a philosophy headed for extinction.

– – –

Keep in mind these eight players, identified by Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com, as having had their draft status hurt by the extraordinary precautions involving the Wuhan/COVID-19 virus.

There was a lot to like about the 2020 NFL draft, a virtual production that saw the league’s top decision-makers surrounded by children and dogs while they worked from their homes. As it turned out, travel restrictions and social distancing because of the coronavirus pandemic made for great TV.

But the process wasn’t kind to every prospect, particularly those recovering from injuries. Without pre-draft visits to team facilities, a medical recheck in Indianapolis in the weeks following the scouting combine or a pro day to show their health, many players waited longer than they expected to be selected.

As Denver Broncos president of football operations/general manager John Elway said in the days before the draft: “Obviously we’re going to get all the information we can. We’re not going to have as much as we’ve had in the past. In some situations, there may be a little leap of faith. We’re doing the best we can to get all the medical [information] we can possibly get.”

With that in mind, here’s a look at some draft prospects most affected by travel restrictions and social distancing:

Bryce Hall, CB, New York Jets

Where we thought he might go: Middle to late third round

Where he ended up: Fifth round, No. 158 overall

The background: Hall played in only six games for Virginia in 2019 because he suffered a season-ending left ankle injury while blocking a punt against Miami in October. Before the injury, some thought he could be a late first-round or early second-round pick. Even after the injury many believed he was a second-day pick. But without a pro day — he elected not work out at the combine — he waited until Day 3.

Jaylon Johnson, CB, Chicago Bears

Where we thought he might go: Middle to late first round

Where he ended up: Second round, No. 50 overall

The background: Johnson played much of last season at Utah with a torn labrum in his shoulder and underwent surgery following the combine. He went through the medical exam at the combine before the surgery and teams did not get their own medical staffs to take a look before the draft.

Netane Muti, G, Denver Broncos

Where we thought he might go: Late third to early fourth round

Where he ended up: Sixth round, No. 181 overall

The background: Muti played in 19 games over three seasons at Fresno State because he tore both his left and right Achilles tendons and also suffered a Lisfranc injury this past season. Elway said the Broncos had a third-round grade on him, and when the sixth round rolled around, Muti was simply too good a value pick to pass up.

Prince Tega Wanogho, T, Philadelphia Eagles

Where we thought he might go: Early to middle third round

Where he ended up: Sixth round, No. 210 overall

The background: His injury flag was raised late in the draft process. He started 12 games last season at Auburn and was a second-team All-SEC selection, but was pulled out of Senior Bowl practices after the medical exam there and then did not work out at the combine.

Antoine Winfield Jr., S, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Where we thought he might go: Late first round

Where he ended up: Second round, No. 45 overall

The background: Winfield’s case was slightly different as injuries ended his seasons at Minnesota in both 2017 and 2018 (hamstring and foot, respectively). He went through the medical exams at the combine, but teams didn’t get a last look with in-house visits before the draft.

Lucas Niang, T, Kansas City Chiefs

Where we thought he might go: Late second to early third round

Where he ended up: Third round, No. 96 overall

The background: Niang underwent hip surgery in November. Before the injury, the TCU product had been considered by many scouts as a potential immediate starter at right tackle as rookie. He underwent a medical exam at the combine, but a medical recheck in April or examinations during team visits likely would have helped his cause. Instead, he was the 10th tackle drafted.

Laviska Shenault Jr., WR, Jacksonville Jaguars

Where we thought he might go: Middle to late first round

Where he ended up: Second round, No. 42 overall

The background: Shenault suffered a core muscle injury last season at Colorado but elected to train for the combine. After running a disappointing 4.58 seconds during his first 40-yard dash in Indianapolis, he didn’t run the second 40 and didn’t do the jumps or position drills. He then underwent surgery in the days following the combine.

Terrell Lewis, OLB/DE, Los Angeles Rams

Where we thought he might go: Late second to early third round

Where he ended up: Third round, No. 84 overall

The background: He missed most of two seasons at Alabama with injuries — a torn right ACL in 2018 and a torn elbow ligament in 2017 — and then elected not to work out at the combine. He thought he would be able to work out at the Crimson Tide’s pro day, which was canceled.