Frank Schwab of YahooSports.com points out that this is not the first time NFL players have not been on the field under the inspection of their coaches in an offseason.  And we don’t remember 2011 as deficient: Football coaches are micromanagers. If you gave them 23 hours and 50 minutes a day with their players, preparing and practicing, they’d worry about what they were missing during the other 10 minutes.   This offseason has to be driving them nuts. In mid-March, they were forced out of team facilities due to the coronavirus. Coaches are allowed to return again, but players haven’t yet. There hasn’t been one team workout or minicamp practice, just a lot of virtual meetings.   Before this season starts, you’ll hear a lot about how the lack of practices and workouts will affect the season in a negative way. A lot of that will come from coaches, who are convinced that without months of practice, their players will be lost.   There will be many unprecedented things this season, but we do have a guide to what an NFL season looks like if there’s no offseason.   Offenses didn’t suffer in 2011 In 2011, a labor dispute wiped out the whole offseason. A new collective-bargaining agreement was signed in late July and training camp started shortly after. The 2020 coronavirus-affected offseason isn’t apples to apples, but it’s close enough to search for clues.   The most common refrain is that the lack of an offseason will affect rookies and teams’ passing games. Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott said earlier this offseason that lost time developing the passing game is the biggest issue. But offense as a whole didn’t suffer in 2011 and passing game numbers improved. Here are the numbers from 2010, 2011 and 2012 to see the comparison:   Total yards per team   2010: 5,376.8 2011: 5,549.3 2012: 5,555.2   Scoring offense per team   2010: 352.6 2011: 354.9 2012: 364.1   Passing yards per team   2010: 3,545.3 2011: 3,675.0 2012: 3,700.6   League-wide passer rating   2010: 84.1 2011: 84.3 2012: 85.6   Maybe you can argue that 2011’s numbers would have looked like 2012 with a full offseason. But it’s not like passing games lagged behind without an offseason to work. In fact, NFL teams averaged 7.2 yards per passing attempt in 2011 and 7.1 in 2012.   And a rookie quarterback was a big part of the passing surge.   Many rookies had an impact in 2011 Before the season, after Carolina Panthers rookie quarterback Cam Newton struggled through the preseason, then-Panthers coach Ron Rivera was concerned.   “As a coach, you go, ‘Wow, we could have really used that time in our situation, with a rookie quarterback,’ ” Rivera said, via The New York Times.   Rivera estimated Newton missed 24 practices and 1,200 to 1,600 snaps. It didn’t seem to affect him. Newton threw for 422 yards in Week 1 and 432 yards in Week 2. He was the first rookie quarterback to throw for 400 yards in his first game. He set rookie quarterback records for rushing (706) and passing (4,051) yards.   Newton was the first pick of the draft and clearly a special talent, but he wasn’t the only rookie quarterback to have a good year. Andy Dalton, a second-round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals, started all 16 games, helped his team make the playoffs and was a Pro Bowler.   Other quarterbacks didn’t pan out. Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder were first-round busts. Did the lack of a rookie offseason factor into that? We’ll never know. Other players from the 2011 draft starred right away. Von Miller, A.J. Green, Julio Jones, Tyron Smith, Richard Sherman, J.J. Watt and Patrick Peterson were among the players to make an instant impact. It was a great rookie class. Many of those players were first-round picks, but Sherman was a fifth-rounder. Undrafted cornerback Chris Harris Jr. of the Denver Broncos had a good rookie season and went on to a great career.   Not many running backs or tight ends had a big impact in 2011. DeMarco Murray lead rookie running backs with 897 yards and Kyle Rudolph was the top rookie tight end with just 249 yards. But the running back and tight end classes that season weren’t considered to be very strong. There were huge seasons from receivers, offensive linemen, pass rushers, linebackers and cornerbacks. Quarterbacks too. And this year’s rookie class at least is participating in virtual meetings, something the 2011 class couldn’t do.   For rookies like Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and Washington Redskins pass rusher Chase Young, maybe there’s no reason to worry.   How did new coaches do in 2011? There are five NFL teams with new head coaches, and logically it makes sense they’d struggle in year one.   The eight new coaches in 2011 mostly didn’t struggle though. Jason Garrett was an interim for the final eight games of the 2010 season so he might not be a great example. Of the other seven teams with brand new coaches, four improved their record, one stayed the same and two got worse:   Ron Rivera, Carolina Panthers: 2-14 to 6-10 Pat Shurmur, Cleveland Browns: 5-11 to 4-12 John Fox, Denver Broncos: 4-12 to 8-8 Jason Garrett, Dallas Cowboys: 6-10 to 8-8 Leslie Frazier, Minnesota Vikings: 6-10 to 3-13 Hue Jackson, Oakland Raiders: 8-8 to 8-8 Jim Harbaugh, San Francisco 49ers: 6-10 to 13-3 Mike Munchak, Tennessee Titans: 6-10 to 9-7   The four teams (not counting Garrett and the Cowboys) that got better improved by an average of 4.5 wins. That’s a small sample. And teams replacing coaches generally had poor records the year before so the bar is low for improvement. Still, the narrative that new coaches are bound to struggle without an offseason didn’t really fit.   That might be good news for the teams with new coaches in 2020: Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Washington Redskins.   Injuries did rise in 2011 There was one stat that clearly spiked in 2011: injuries.   According to Football Outsiders’ adjusted games lost metric, which adjusts for the importance of a player to a team, there was a 17.9 percent increase in injuries in 2011. There were 1,627.6 adjusted games lost in 2010 and 1,918.7 in 2011. A medical report found a 2011 spike in what it termed conditioning-related injuries. There was an odd increase in Achilles’ tendon ruptures. There were 12 Achilles tears through the second preseason week in 2011, way up from an average of about five per season before 2011.   The injury increase could have been random variance. And it might not be related to the lockout: The NFL’s AGL total increased in 2012, 2013 and 2014, before finally dropping in 2015. Conditioning-related injuries did settle down to pre-2010 levels however, according to the medical report.   It seems fair to assume injuries will be more than usual this season, based on 2011’s figures.   Will continuity matter? More experienced teams will be expected to fare better in this odd season. In 2011, that wasn’t a huge factor.   There were six teams that made the playoffs in 2010 that went back to the postseason in 2011. That’s in line with the average under the NFL’s current playoff format. According to figures from The Comeback, from 1991 through 2019 an average of 6.4 teams returned to the playoffs from the previous season.   In 2011, seven of the 14 youngest teams in the NFL (via Football Perspective’s roster breakdowns) made the playoffs. The team that was tied for the oldest roster, the St. Louis Rams, went 2-14 (though three of the four oldest teams won at least 12 games).   You’ll hear a lot about how teams will be affected without an offseason. Coaches will bemoan the lack of practice time. But if 2011 is any indication, there won’t be much change at all, aside from perhaps injuries. Maybe coaches don’t need as much time with their players as they think.

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO Coach Matt Nagy says the Bears don’t need any more Zoom meetings.  Patrick Finely of the Chicago Sun-Times: The Bears are ending their offseason program after Thursday — a week-and-a-half early, coach Matt Nagy said.   The Bears coach said he wants the players to focus on training without having to focus on virtual meetings Monday through Thursday.   “We’re going to let the players go,” he said. “We have an action plan of how we’re going to take care of them.”   Nagy said he wasn’t sure when the Bears coaching staff would be allowed back inside Halas Hall. The NFL sent a memo last week saying coaches were allowed to return, pending local law, but the Bears said they’d stay away for the foreseeable future.   “Our focus is on training camp,” he said.   The Bears had been holding team meetings via videoconference, per league rules that mandated players stay away from their facilities because of the coronavirus.   After Thursday, Bears veterans won’t have to meet at noon central for two hours, four days per week. Bears rookies will still be required to meet.   Nagy held a press conference on Zoom on Tuesday morning.

MINNESOTA Jason LaCanfora of CBSSports.com floats an idea to ease the emerging contract impasse with RB DALVIN COOK: It should come as no surprise that Dalvin Cook is in a staredown with the Minnesota Vikings. We told you in this space weeks ago that this was coming to a head and that the running back wanted a new deal more in line with what Christian McCaffrey pulled down from the Panthers. And now it has come to pass.   He does not intend to show for training camp without a new deal, and, as I chronicled in the past, his franchise is in a bind. There are a lot of factors working in his favor, even despite playing a position that has been largely devalued in recent years. Cook can make a solid case for a new payday, and he and Joe Mixon of the Bengals are on a very short list of non-quarterbacks who might still be able to get a legit extension done as the league and our country continue to sort through this pandemic.   And I continue to believe that there is a reasonable solution to this problem that includes a three-year model and more money frontloaded into 2020. It will take considerable give and take to get a deal done in the current economic climate — and reasonable expectations from both sides — but there is a way to make both parties happy enough to make it worthwhile to execute a new deal.   What Cook has going for him The Vikings, for the past three years or so, as they transitioned into a new stadium, have paid EVERYBODY. If you were any good — or they thought you were going to be any good — you got paid. Period. Kirk Cousins has already been paid there twice, and he just got there in 2018. Extensions abounded. That’s who they are.   Furthermore, they have a risk-averse, old-school coach who doesn’t want to risk too much — running the ball is his MO. And with Gary Kubiak further reshaping the offense, Cook is in line for more volume in the passing game and an expanded role overall. Minnesota’s defense has slipped considerably from its heights and is going to have to score more to win. One could easily make the case that Cook is the most important player on that side of the ball, that the offense will run through him, and that he has far out-performed his contract.   But … He’s still a running back in a pass-happy era. Almost every team that has doled out a heavy RB deal in recent years has been burned — most absolutely scalded — and Cook’s durability has already been an issue. Injuries have been a factor and he has appeared in just 29 out of a possible 48 games through three seasons. Not ideal. Of course, he could argue that he has only been better and strong since season-ending knee surgery his rookie year, and is truly in his prime right now, but especially at this position, it can be a very tough sell.   And the Vikings could contend their finances are more uncertain than ever, who knows if fans go to games this year or if a full season is played, and the cap might fall flat in 2021, further compounding their issues as a team with serious cap woes entering 2020. Plus the GM and head coach are currently lame ducks and ownership might be hesitant to make a huge financial commitment to a running back without its long-term brain trust established (the Jets, for instance, signed Le’Veon Bell to a hefty RB deal and then fired the GM and the current coach has wanted nothing to do with that contract since). It can get complicated, and quick.   So what do they do? Cook, looking at the prospect of having to play out his rookie deal for $1.3M, can make the case for skipping out on practices and whatever else until he gets the same kind of treatment so many of his teammates have received. I get it. If I was representing him — especially in a virtual offseason — I’d have him shut down his laptop and Zoom right on with his day without any contact with the organization. Makes all the sense in the world to me.   I’d ask for something in the range of the $32M that McCaffrey will get in the first two years of his deal … but also be willing to take a bunch less. Tough climate to do a deal, he didn’t have 1,000 yards rushing and receiving like Run CMC, has not been near that durable and the Panthers payroll and cap situation is in many ways the complete opposite of the Vikings (Carolina is shedding salary in the near term with Cam Newton and Greg Olsen let go and Luke Kuechly retiring).   The reasonable solution is the franchise tag Who knows about the 2021 cap, in such uncertain times, but we do know that the 2020 tag for running backs was a little over $10M. McCaffrey’s deal moves the needle some. And eventually, the new broadcast money and gambling will kick back in and eventually fans will be in the stands again buying grossly overpriced beers and hot dogs. A three-year window is where it’s at.   The Vikings purchase Cook’s franchise tag year (2021) and one more year at an average value of around $12.5M or so a year. Let’s say $12.5M in 2021 and $14M in 2022. So roughly $27M in new money right there. Add in the $1.3M he was already set to make this year. We’re just short of $30M. Put $10M in a signing bonus that allowed him to take home $11.3M in 2020, guarantee the $12.5M in 2021 and guarantee the $14M in 2022 for everything but injury, with an injury guarantee that kicks in a we days into the 2022 league year. So were kind of playing around with the three-year, fully guaranteed structure that the Vikings gave Cousins — QBs are different — but with some tweaks.   Given the climate we are all in, I think it would be foolish to leave that kind of money on the table. Maybe put in an opt-out clause that is Cook achieves certain metrics in the 2021 season — 1,600 yards rushing? 12 touchdowns? Some threshold of scrimmage yards — then he can opt out of the deal after that season.   Go ahead get a little creative with it; these are different times after all. But this would be a bizarre time for a player, especially a running back, to turn down a significant bird in hand, and this would be a very strange time for the Wilf family to stop spending to keep their best players around.

NFC EAST

PHILADELPHIA Tim McManus of ESPN.com tries to figure out if the Eagles have improved their offense for 2020. Are the Philadelphia Eagles better, worse or the same on offense compared to a year ago?   That’s a question that requires more than a blanket answer given all the moving parts. They parted with a future Hall of Famer in left tackle Jason Peters, assembled a track team at wide receiver and shocked the world by drafting quarterback Jalen Hurts in the second round.   Where does that leave the Eagles heading into 2020? Here’s a position-by-position look (UFA = unrestricted free agent):   Wide receivers Additions: Jalen Reagor (first round), Marquise Goodwin (Niners), John Hightower (fifth round), Quez Watkins (sixth round), Khalil Tate (UFA), Manasseh Bailey (UFA)   Losses: Nelson Agholor (Raiders)   Returners: DeSean Jackson, Alshon Jeffery, Greg Ward Jr., JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Deontay Burnett, Robert Davis, Shelton Gibson, Marcus Green   Better, worse or the same? Better   How could it not be? Injuries and unmet expectations turned one of the most promising receiving corps entering 2019 into maybe the worst. The Eagles’ offense averaged 6.46 yards per target when throwing to wide receivers last season, almost half a yard worse than every other offense in the league (the Panthers were next at 6.93), per ESPN Stats & Information research. The only team’s wideouts who combined for fewer total yards than the Eagles (1,647) was the Ravens (1,419).   After watching the offense play station-to-station ball for much of last season, general manager Howie Roseman went hard after speed this offseason, adding burners such as Reagor and Goodwin who, along with a now-healthy Jackson, will make this unit more explosive.   Running backs Additions: Adrian Killins Jr. (UFA), Mike Warren (UFA)   Losses: Jordan Howard (Dolphins), Darren Sproles (retired)   Returners: Miles Sanders, Boston Scott, Elijah Holyfield, Corey Clement   Better, worse or the same? Worse   This is a temporary state, however. The Eagles don’t have that veteran security blanket in the fold yet, but they’ve been keeping a close eye on the running back market and will probably add to this group (they’ve shown interest in Devonta Freeman and LeSean McCoy) before the start of the season. Whatever drop-off they might experience at RB2 will be offset by the growth of RB1 Sanders, who averaged more than 5 yards per carry and 97 all-purpose yards from Week 8 on last season as a rookie and looks to be a dual-threat star in the making.   Howard was key for this team over the first half of the season, but Sanders and Scott proved they’re ready for more snaps. Once a final piece is added, this group could be even better than last season.   Quarterbacks Additions: Hurts (second round)   Losses: Josh McCown (unsigned)   Returners: Carson Wentz, Nate Sudfeld, Kyle Lauletta   Better, worse or the same? Better   There are a couple of concerns here. McCown was very good for Wentz. Whatever Wentz needed, whether it be a sounding board or a cheerleader or a stress-relieving laugh, McCown provided. The roles were well defined and McCown was clearly there to support Wentz. Hurts has the reputation of being a great teammate, but the dynamics are naturally different when you add a young, hungry second-round talent to the mix. There’s also a lack of experience behind Wentz, as Sudfeld and Hurts have a combined 25 NFL snaps between them.   The flip side is that McCown, 40, was injured halfway through his only meaningful action of 2019 — a wild-card playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks in January. The Eagles wanted to stay true to their philosophy and reinvest in the quarterback position, and they have added an electric player in Hurts who might be able to create a little magic if given the opportunity. He’s expected to have a niche role in the offense to start, perhaps much like Lamar Jackson did his rookie season in Baltimore. While Hurts develops, the Eagles could turn to Sudfeld in case of emergency. He is short on game experience but has been in the system for three years and has gained the coaches’ trust.   Tight ends Additions: Noah Togiai (UFA)   Losses: Richard Rodgers (Redskins)   Returners: Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert, Alex Ellis, Josh Perkins   Better, worse or the same? Same   And there’s nothing wrong with that in this instance. Ertz and Goedert have a very strong case for being the best tight end duo in the game. They were No. 1 and No. 2 on the team in receptions, yards and receiving touchdowns last season. Philadelphia was in a two-TE set a whopping 46% of the time last season, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Expect plenty more of that look in 2020, along with better results now that there is some receiver speed on the outside to take the top off the defense.   Offensive line Additions: Prince Tega Wanogho (sixth round), Jack Driscoll (fourth round), Luke Juriga (UFA), Julian Good-Jones (UFA), Casey Tucker (Lions)   Losses: Jason Peters (unsigned), Halapoulivaati Vaitai (Lions)   Returners: Lane Johnson, Brandon Brooks, Jason Kelce, Isaac Seumalo, Andre Dillard, Jordan Mailata, Matt Pryor, Sua Opeta, Nate Herbig, Keegan Render   Better, worse or the same? Worse   The Eagles made the decision to let Peters test free agency and move ahead with Dillard, the Eagles’ 2019 first-round pick, at left tackle. Dillard was up and down as a rookie and not everyone in the building is convinced he is ready for prime time. Unless Philly brings back Peters, who remains a free agent, Dillard will be responsible for Wentz’s blind side, and that could go one of two ways.   Their tackle depth took a hit as well with Vaitai getting a handsome deal to start for the Lions. Offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland has been very good at developing prospects, and he will be called on again to get a couple of promising rookie O-linemen — Wanogho and Driscoll — up to speed.   The group remains in good shape overall with anchors Kelce, Johnson and Brooks in place.

NFC SOUTH

NEW ORLEANS QB JAMEIS WINSTON is all about all the yards he passed for last year in defining his greatness.  More from his interview with Tyler Dunne of Bleacher Report: Jameis Winston no longer has a starting job. He still has plenty of confidence.   “I know what I’m worth,” Winston recently told Tyler Dunne of BleacherReport.com. “And I know day in and day out, without publicly coming in and saying it, that historically I’m one of the best quarterbacks to play the game.”   And he’s now publicly come out and said it. He publicly said even more.   “Do I feel like I’m better than a lot of starting quarterbacks in this league?” Winston said. “I do. But God has a plan that I haven’t even thought of yet. I have to respect this game first. Respect is earned.” Here are the numbers that Winston would cite. MOST PASSING YARDS, 1st 5 SEASONS, ALL-TIME Peyton Manning                    20,618 Jameis Winston                   19,737 Dan Marino*                          19,422 Andrew Luck                         19,078 Matt Ryan                              18.957 His 121 TD passes rank 8th over the first five years. It’s a different game now in this category, but we would note that Peyton Manning (100) is among the eight QBs with more than Winston’s 88 INTs in his first five years.

TAMPA BAY Warren Moon on playing QB in the NFL with an older arm.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com: Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon was 44 years old when he made his last NFL start, so he’s one of the few people who have experienced what Tom Brady and Drew Brees are doing right now, playing quarterback into their 40s. And Moon has some bad news for Brady and Brees: Father Time catches everyone.   Moon says that he can see a deterioration in the arm strength of Brady and Brees, and it’s the same deterioration that he himself suffered from at the end of his career.   “I can see — especially later in the season, and you can see this with Drew Brees and some of the other quarterbacks as well — their arms don’t have the same pop at the end of the season that they had early in the year,” Moon told Colin Cowherd, via MassLive.com. “That has to do with their age, and that’s something I started to see in my career when I got older, that I didn’t have that same pop in my arm. A lot of it has to do with your legs because you’ve just become fatigued over the course of the whole season.”   Moon said Brady can be successful at age 43 this season, just not the same quarterback he was in his best years with the Patriots.   “You saw Tom’s arm that same way at the end of last year,” Moon said. “It’s not a huge deterioration to where he can’t throw certain routes, but there will be times when it gets later into the year you’re going to see some of that take its place. He has great talent around him [in Tampa Bay], which is great, and he doesn’t have to do as much on that football team, which will be good for him at this stage of his career. So I still think he’s gonna have success because of those reasons, but he’s not the same quarterback he was three or four years ago.”   Brady takes motivation from people doubting him, so those comments may go on his bulletin board. Brady will try to prove Moon wrong, but that gets harder with each passing year.

NFC WEST

SEATTLE Alonzo Highsmith, out in Cleveland, finds a home in Seattle.  Brady Henderson of ESPN.com: The Seattle Seahawks have hired former Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns executive Alonzo Highsmith as a full-time member of their scouting department.   The team’s website lists Highsmith’s title as personnel executive. The Seahawks brought him on earlier this offseason in a consulting role.   Highsmith spent 19 seasons in the Packers’ front office, where he worked with Seahawks general manager John Schneider. He was promoted to senior personnel executive in 2012 and held that position until he left in 2018 to become the Browns’ vice president of player personnel. Highsmith and the Browns parted ways in January when the team hired Andrew Berry as GM.

AFC WEST

DENVER Even though his teammates remain banned, DE BRADLEY CHUBB is at the Broncos’ Dove Ranch facility working on his rehab.  Kevin Patra of NFL.com: As the NFL continues to make plans for all players to be able to return to team facilities, a select few have been rehabbing through injures in the buildings.   Denver Broncos pass rusher Bradley Chubb, rehabbing a torn ACL, said the experience in a mostly empty facility has been somewhat eerie.   “It was weird, just very quiet,” Chubb said, via ESPN. “And it was some days people didn’t feel like talking it would be a quiet room, just working out in a quiet room. We did a good job trying to make sure we had that same energy every day in training room, but it definitely wore on you seeing the same people over and over and doing the same thing over and over.”   Chubb had his knee surgically repaired in October and had been rehabbing before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down team facilities. Teammate Von Miller was one person who contracted the virus and has since recovered.   The NFL began allowing rehabbing players to return to team facilities — with restrictions in place — late last month.   “It’s trainers and like four guys now, it’s still a small group,” Chubb said. “Something we’re very lucky to be able to do. … Looking back when you see that stuff on the news, in the beginning I didn’t know how serious it was. … When Von got sick, it was like ‘OK, this thing is serious,’ everything he was going through, the symptoms he had, you could tell it was something people had to take serious.”   Chubb said he’s made progress in his rehab and is able to cut on the surgically repaired knee.   “It’s progressing like I want to, finding all the different type of things I can do on my own to make sure I’m the best the next day,” Chubb said. “Trying to find all the small things I can do to make sure I’m 100 percent. Right now, I’m feeling good, doing a lot of different things, cutting-wise, getting back into like position work. … To see where I started off and where I am now is amazing [but] I’m ready to get back around my teammates.”   How long it takes for Chubb to get back to form will play a major role in how the Broncos defense starts its season. A healthy Chubb and Miller off the edge on a line that added underrated stud Jurrell Casey to the middle would be a beast for offensive lines to handle.   For now, Chubb will continue to rehab in that quiet facility until the rest of his teammates are allowed to join.

AFC EAST

NEW ENGLAND Bill Belichick has been especially moved by the social justice passion of CB DEVIN McCOURTY.  Mike Reiss of ESPN.com reports with a guest appearance from QB TOM BRADY: New England Patriots owners Robert and Jonathan Kraft donated $100,000 in safety Devin McCourty’s name as part of their social-justice initiative on Tuesday night, and head coach Bill Belichick highlighted how McCourty’s tireless work in that area has sparked his interest to do more.   The remarks came during a virtual fundraiser in which McCourty was honored by Boston Uncornered, an organization he has supported that redirects gang-involved youth from “street corners” to end generational urban poverty.   “Conversations across our country and within our team will help lead to paving the way for a better future. Following your lead, and the example of other incredible men on our team, I look forward to increasing my role in this process,” Belichick said in taped remarks. “Healthy discussion leads to actions. And actions that you have brought to the forefront have resulted in progress.”   Belichick called McCourty an “ultimate role model,” adding that he is a “great example of the impact that someone can have with great wisdom, leadership, courage and passion.”   They were Belichick’s first public comments since the death of George Floyd, which sparked passionate conversations in the Patriots’ virtual meetings. One result from those meetings was the Kraft family pledging $1 million to local grassroots organizations — chosen in collaboration with players — that are fighting for equity, to end systemic racism and create meaningful change.   Kraft surprised McCourty by informing him that the first $100,000 of that pledge would go to Boston Uncornered as a tribute to McCourty’s work.   The virtual event, hosted by veteran reporter Andrea Kremer, included remarks from many of McCourty’s current and past teammates, including quarterback Tom Brady.   “I know sometimes you wouldn’t think I’d be looking up to you, because I’m a lot older than you. But the reality is, I have. I’ve learned more from you than you’ve probably ever learned from me,” the 42-year-old Brady said in taped comments. “You’re using all the wonderful things pro football has taught you to bring a voice to those who don’t quite have the voice that we have. You fight for people that can’t often fight for themselves. It’s a very endearing quality about you, among other things.”   McCourty, 32, is a finalist (along with his twin brother, Jason) for the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award, which will be presented at the ESPY Awards on June 21.   Kraft called him a “true champion both on and off the field” before cracking a joke toward the end of Tuesday’s virtual event.   “One of the thrills when you have the privilege to own an NFL team is you get to meet people like Devin and Jason. You could even see that fellow, I forget his name, he used to play quarterback who left — he really wishes he was still with you here. I could hear it in his voice,” Kraft quipped.

THIS AND THAT

KAEP AND HIS RETURN The drumbeat for the return of QB COLIN KAEPERNICK grows.  This from S MALCOLM JENKINS (and Falcons QB MATT RYAN) as reported by Tim McManus of ESPN.com.  Jenkins wants him “assigned” to a team by The Commish: New Orleans Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins said the efforts by commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL to support players fighting for social justice have fallen short because they have yet to properly address their handling of Colin Kaepernick.   “I still don’t think [the NFL has] gotten it right. Until they apologize, specifically, to Colin Kaepernick, or assign him to a team, I don’t think that they will end up on the right side of history,” Jenkins, who is the co-founder of the Players Coalition, said Tuesday in an appearance on “CBS This Morning.”   “At the end of the day, they’ve listened to their players, they’ve donated money, they’ve created an Inspire Change platform; they’ve tried to do things up to this point. But it’s been one player in particular that they have ignored and not acknowledged, and that’s Colin Kaepernick.”   Goodell said in a video released Friday that the NFL “condemn[s] racism and the systematic oppression of black people” and that the league was “wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier, and encourage[s] all players to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the National Football League, believe that black lives matter.”   Goodell’s statement was in response to a video featuring more than a dozen star players, including Pro Bowl quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, requesting that the NFL step up its support. Kaepernick was not mentioned by name in the video, but the players asked the league to “admit wrong in silencing our players from peacefully protesting.”   “That’s the only thing people want to hear,” Jenkins said of the NFL’s silence on Kaepernick. “If it’s not going to correct that or acknowledge that, then everything else doesn’t need to be said.”   Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, speaking to reporters on a conference call Tuesday, said Kaepernick deserves an opportunity to be on a roster.   “As far as Colin being back in the league, I think he should have every opportunity to,” Ryan said. “He created awareness for a situation that, it’s taking some time, but people are becoming more active in terms of their response to it. So I think from that standpoint, his protest is being heard at this point. It might have taken too long, but I think he should have every opportunity to have a job and to have a spot in this league.”   Kaepernick was the first NFL player to kneel during the national anthem in 2016 to bring attention to social injustices following the shooting deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling by police officers on consecutive days that July.   Kaepernick has not worked in the NFL since that 2016 season. He settled a collusion case with the NFL in 2019. Charles Robinson of YahooSports.com also finds it imperative for The Commish to act and blame “the owners”, not him for Kaepernick’s failure to sign a contract. The clock is ticking for Roger Goodell.   Not for the NFL. Not for team owners. But specifically for the NFL commissioner.   The clock is ticking. More loudly than ever and in the face of a sweeping energy that isn’t going away. This moment — right now — is Goodell’s legacy moment. What he does in the coming months will shape how history looks back on him. And it has everything to do with Colin Kaepernick.   We should have realized this in the early morning of May 30, when a former member of Goodell’s executive staff, Joe Lockhart, dropped a significant opinion piece for CNN. It appeared to speak directly to something that Goodell couldn’t, lest he throw caution to the wind and wreak havoc on his bosses, which might be exactly what he needs to do. We’ll get to that in a moment. But let’s start with Lockhart, the former NFL vice president of communications and public affairs, whose column for CNN said something along the lines of:   We in the league office tried to get Colin Kaepernick back into the NFL. But team owners stood in the way.   This is an important distinction because for a long time, Goodell has been the lead piñata for those who question why Kaepernick was being shut out of the league. He has always been the shield for the shield, the first and most convenient guy in line for criticism over Kaepernick’s plight. And perhaps rightfully so, given that franchise owners have compensated him at a historic financial clip that makes him the single highest-paid sports commissioner in the history of the planet. When you collect checks like that, you absorb most of the league’s body blows, too.   Here’s the thing about Goodell: His reign is coming to an end.   Did Goodell fail in bid to persuade team owners on Kaepernick? With the latest collective-bargaining agreement in the books, there are already successors being speculated inside the league office. His contract runs through the 2023 season and there are some team owners who privately don’t shy away from talking about what kind of replacement is needed to take the league into its next frontier. And when that happens, Goodell’s legacy will be cemented. There will be plenty of good, from the expansion of revenues, to a rise in popularity that made the NFL one of the most influential corporate entities in America, to 20 years of relatively uninterrupted labor peace and a meaningful product foothold overseas.   But there will also be Kaepernick, a resonating human symbol to a social justice movement and form of protest that will play a part in defining a righteous chapter in American history. More than three years since his last NFL game, that’s Kaepernick’s place in this era. And if the events of the past two weeks are any indication, the spotlight on his symbolism will intensify as time erases the critics.   If Goodell doesn’t see what that means for him, let’s go ahead and state it in the most blunt terms: History will remember a right and wrong side of Colin Kaepernick’s story. The same as it has ultimately come to draw a defining line of right and wrong on Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Jackie Robinson and the scores of other black athletes who have made sacrifices or taken stands that have been etched into the bedrock of America’s history of racial inequality.   Today, Goodell has to ask himself where he’s going to stand when it comes to Kaepernick. Whether he wanted it or not, the worst and most predictable set of circumstances have offered Goodell a second chance at resolving a wrong. Or at the very least, speaking clearly and unambiguously about that wrong. It has given Goodell the chance to be counted in his chosen column — either on the side of team owners, who have illustrated their decision, or on the side of peacefully protesting players, whose actions will resonate as loudly as ever when the 2020 season begins.   This decision remains in Goodell’s hands. He won’t be afforded the luxury of counting himself as a witness to the events surrounding Kaepernick. He’ll be remembered as a participant. Either he was actively aiding NFL franchise owners when it came to Kaepernick being shut out of the league or he was a silent partner, simply because he refused to say one thing: “I believe Colin Kaepernick belongs in the NFL. I have worked to get Colin Kaepernick back into the NFL. I have ultimately lost that battle because I cannot force the hands of NFL owners.”   It’s reasonable to believe that Goodell actually subscribes to those words. Lockhart’s column for CNN suggests that Goodell and the NFL’s league office tried to persuade team owners to provide an opportunity for Kaepernick. Of course, that’s an after-the-fact assertion that is worthy of plenty of suspicion. Lockhart could be rewriting the facts to make himself and the league look better in the face of the death of George Floyd, who died beneath the knee of the same type of police brutality that drove Kaepernick to begin his protests during the national anthem in 2016.   There’s also the chance that Lockhart isn’t reshaping the league office’s culpability when it came to Kaepernick. There’s the chance that Goodell, Lockhart and others earnestly tried to keep the league’s team owners from shutting out Kaepernick forever. Maybe that happened. Maybe they failed. And maybe Goodell has been getting unfairly hammered ever since. That seems to be what Lockhart suggested when he called for an NFL team to sign Kaepernick right now.   “The NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, and other league executives tried to persuade the teams to change their minds,” Lockhart wrote. “The league sent owners and players around the country to try to lead a dialogue on race relations and to move, as the sociologist and human rights activist Harry Edwards said, ‘from protest to progress.’ Though Kaepernick didn’t get his job back, I thought we had all done a righteous job, considering. I was wrong. I think the teams were wrong for not signing him. Watching what’s going on in Minnesota, I understand how badly wrong we were.”   If that passage is legitimate, Lockhart did something righteous. He told a truth that has been elusive for years in the NFL. At no point has Goodell or anyone else ever come close to saying, “We tried, but it was the franchise owners who shut out Kaepernick.”   Now is time for Goodell to make a stand All of which brings us back to Goodell. He has an opportunity here to affirm what Lockhart wrote. All he has to do is say, “What Joe wrote is true, we tried to create an opportunity for Kaepernick, but the team owners refused to yield.”   Would that statement be impactful? Absolutely.   It would represent a moment when the league’s fall guy in the Kaepernick era refused to offer himself up as protection for his bosses. It would be proof that franchise owners couldn’t buy Goodell’s silence at a time when silence is one of the most vile and damaging tools used in the fight against equality. And it would further suggest that even now, three years after Kaepernick’s career ended, Goodell is willing to take a second opportunity and say the same words that Lockhart wrote.   “I was wrong.”   There is a very forgiving space for that phrase in the NFL today. And Goodell knows it, as he now stands as the most significant NFL employee to admit as much when he delivered a mea culpa of sorts in a video where he said, “We, the National Football League, were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier, and encourage all to speak out and protest peacefully.”   That is halfway to a legacy-defining statement. Goodell listened to his players and said precisely what they needed in order to feel the league was finally hearing them. But again, it went only halfway. Goodell never said Kaepernick’s name. There was no expression of contrition for ending the career of a player who began the tidal wave that Goodell was now endorsing. And there was no suggestion that maybe there could be a renewed effort to fix a wrong that never should have happened in the first place.   There is still time for Goodell to go the rest of the way. There is still time to make a defining admission about Kaepernick and to renew an effort to get him back into the NFL. There is still time to say what Lockhart has said: “This is the decision of the team owners. Not me. And I was wrong to stay quiet about that.”   This is the difference between being a silent witness or a meaningful participant. When it comes to Kaepernick’s ouster and the role Goodell has played in all of it, his inability to point the finger at team ownership continues to put him on the wrong side of history. He can still change that. And with it, he can still alter a defining piece of his legacy in the process.   Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com with a report emanating from Kaepernick’s camp: The early days of the shunning of Colin Kaepernick featured plenty of spoon-fed false narratives to media members who pushed facts that were alternative, at best. Now that the NFL is facing unprecedented public pressure to put Kaepernick back in the league, a new false narrative could be emerging.   Consider this lede from chief Associated Press NFL writer Barry Wilner: “It certainly would be a difficult decision for Colin Kaepernick to make. Yet if he comes to the realization that his platform of advocacy is now stronger than ever, attempting a return to the NFL might be unwise.”   Wilner argues that Kaepernick should consider giving up returning to the NFL and focusing instead on the work he has done over the last three years.   “Whether Kaepernick has thought about giving up the quest to return to pro football is impossible to know unless he speaks out about it,” Wilner writes. “But he probably should be considering it.”   He’s not. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Kaepernick is in great shape, and he wants to play. And he is “more motivated to play than ever” to the NFL.   It will be interesting, and probably not coincidental, if other reporters and analysts begin pushing this same theory. But few players end up with a bigger platform when, you know, not playing.   Regardless, Kaepernick wants to play. No opinions from the AP or anyone else, whether crafted organically or with a nudge from someone with the league office or a team, will change that.

HALL OF FAME Even as other states deny the ability of public venues to open up, Ohio has allowed The Memorial PGA TOUR event in Columbus to allow 8,000 fans per day on the Muirfield Village course in July.  So maybe David Baker of the Hall of Fame has a chance to host a modified version of the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement weekend in Canton.  Kevin Patra of NFL.com: Much like the entire NFL season, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is planning for the HOF Game and ceremony to move forward as scheduled.   Hall of Fame president David Baker joined Good Morning Football on Wednesday and said that there are several contingencies in place in case those plans get altered and the game (Aug. 6) or enshrinement (Aug. 8) cannot take place.   “Our plan right now is to go forward as if we’re going to have a full ceremony … just like we normally would,” Baker said. “But we also have really five contingency plans that stretch from delaying it for a couple weeks to going all the way to next year. We have had to run financial analysis on that and we have like 17 different partners — including the NFL Network, ESPN and NBC — and so we’ve had to work it through with those partners. Kind of like the game itself, we have a game plan. We’re preparing to move forward. But we’re also ready, if we have to call an audible, to go to any contingency.”   The Pro Football Hall of Fame reopened Wednesday, after being closed for the first time in its history for the past three months. Baker noted that there is no certainty when it comes to the future, given the unknown nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.   “I was very encouraged by, when all this came down, I think it was March 11, which was a Wednesday night — March Madness was canceled by the NCAA, NASCAR canceled its series, Spring Training was canceled, the NBA suspended its season. As it turns out, about 36 hours later, at 9 o’clock on Friday morning, our tickets for the Hall of Fame Game, between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cowboys, went on sale. I (was) a little concerned about that in that environment, but I want to tell you that it sold out in 22 minutes. The enshrinement is almost sold out. So, we’ve got the luxury of not worry about having to sell tickets, but we want to see what happens. We’re all prayin’, not only for the Hall of Fame Game but for the season, because we may know more 30 days from now than we do now. We certainly know more now than we did 30 days ago. But we’re going to be ready for whatever comes.”   The Steelers and Cowboys are slated to meet in the preseason Hall of Fame Game on Thursday, Aug. 6, at 8 p.m. ET.   Five modern-era players (Steve Atwater, Isaac Bruce, Steve Hutchinson, Edgerrin James and Troy Polamalu), two coaches (Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson) and three contributors (Steve Sabol, Paul Tagliabue and George Young) are set to be enshrined on Saturday, Aug. 8.   Ten senior selections (Harold Carmichael, Jimbo Covert, Bobby Dillon, Cliff Harris, Winston Hill, Alex Karras, Donnie Shell, Duke Slater, Mac Speedie and Ed Sprinkle) are scheduled to be enshrined in a separate ceremony on Friday, Sept. 18 as part of the once-in-a-lifetime Centennial Celebration in honor of the NFL’s 100th year.