The NFL news world has been rocked today with player opt outs due to health concerns with COVID-19.
Several notable players have decided to opt out of the 2020 season including Patriots LB Dont’a Hightower, Patriots S Patrick Chung, Bears DT Eddie Goldman, Eagles WR Marquise Goodwin and many others.
The constant news updates sent me on a hunt to gather some anonymous information from agents around the league. I wound up having several productive conversations, and decided to put together some useful information that came to me directly from inside the business world of football.
In all, I gathered the following thoughts from several different agents.
The first sentiment was shared by two different agents that I held talks with:
“A lot of guys had to opt out because they would get fined $50,000 per day under the new CBA rules if they didn’t report to camp. The opt outs will slow down, but you may see another wave as the deadline to opt out approaches. It’s actually a good thing for the league. They don’t want to pay any extra expenses when it comes to testing. They’re saving money with the guys opting out of the cost offsets. This helps the league better understand what pot they are working with. You’ll start to see more veteran players signed soon. A lot of the UDFA pot is also still available.”
A third agent had the following to add:
“I think the NFL has put in place ridiculously stringent standards when it comes to COVID-19. The plan to move forward with a safe season is a good one. I think the players that opt out will live to regret it. Even if established, players have such a limited time frame to earn money in this game, and here they are voluntarily giving up a year to do so.”
It was interesting to hear that some of these opt outs may actually be a good thing for the NFL, since the overall reactions from the fan-bases have made this sound like a total disaster for the league. Take a closer look, and there’s apparently some optimism to be found in this by the league’s decision makers.
It was also good to hear that the NFL has put in place ridiculously stringent standards in response to COVID-19. The safer the league plays this, the more likely we are to get a complete 2020 season.
You can read more details about how opt outs work HERE.
So far, the Titans have had just one opt out in the form of UDFA OL Anthony McKinney.
Our own Zach Lyons has a Titans opt-out tracker that you can follow along with here.
