The New York Giants had to deal with a shortened offseason last year, and that looks like the case again leading into the 2021 season. In this case, it’s at the very least the voluntary workouts that will be affected after the team’s players have decided not to attend these workouts in-person. The reason, of course, is fears of COVID-19.
Each team has the right to opt out under the current CBA, and the Giants are joining several other teams that have made the same decision. That list of teams stands at seven right now, not including the Giants, and includes the current Super Bowl champions.
What does this mean for the Giants?
The workouts were set to begin next Monday but it seems that the Giants will have to figure out an alternative to handling them in-person. Teams around the country had to deal with similar situations at both the college and professional level last year, and conducting workouts and playbook study over Zoom became the norm.
It’s easy to argue, of course, that this saw mixed results in terms of payoff. Some teams that were expected to do well underperformed, with bad offseasons being blamed. A reduced offseason was often brought up when discussing Jason Garrett’s underperformance as the Giants OC.
The team has released a statement through the NFLPA.
Our team is a strong, unified brotherhood of professionals who love the game of football and work year-round to perfect our craft. We also have to make the best decision to protect our health and safety, which is why players on our team are exercising our CBA right to not attend in-person voluntary workouts. We stand in solidarity with players across our league who are making informed decisions with the help of our union, both in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and what the data shows about the benefits to our overall health and safety.