This headline could be a serious one in the next coming months as NFL teams gather for pre-season practices and training sessions. Every professional league is wrestling with this right now and what to do. I wanted to walk through a scenario which could be applied to any team and the situation that the NFL will be in to solve. In this scenario Trey Hopkins catches COVID-19 (sorry Trey but this is only a drill).
Often times when someone in a position group gets sick so to does the rest of that group at the very least despite extreme measures. Given the spread-ability of COVID-19 it is reasonable to think that one OL player can contract the virus and pass it to at least 5 other guys on the OL. In this case let’s assume Trey spreads it to both starting guards (Michael Jordan and Xavier Su’a-Filo) and one tackle (Bobby Hart). Trey also spreads it to his backups (Billy Price and Isaiah Price) for the total to make five.
The Bengals would now be left with just their starting left tackle (Jonah Williams) and all backup offensive linemen. Generally a team only keeps 9 linemen. Fred Johnson would then play right tackle and here comes the fun. Alex Redmond would likely place center and now we have to reach into the practice squad to call up players. So what about the starting players? Will they go on IR? Will the NFL give them a special Inactive waiver? If the Bengals were up against the cap then how would that count against the cap for those 14-30 days?
It is likely we would call up Akeem Adeniji to play LG and someone from the handful of no-namers to play RG or sign a FA. If someone gets hurt during a game then what? Move a TE into a guard or tackle roll or have Clark Harris play center? A lot of what if’s on this one.
Let’s hope that none of this happens to any team but especially a position group like ours that lacks a lot of depth. The NFL is going to have to come up with some provisions for COVID-19. Imagine if Patrick Mahomes and his QB room caught it. Something like this is going to happen in 2020; let’s hope that the NFL is prepared for it when it does.