Officially, the NFL has scheduled a full preseason to begin in August. Unofficially, there’s already talk of scaling back the preseason.
Amid concerns that the coronavirus shutdown has prevented players from having enough offseason work to be ready for the start of the preseason, Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the NFL and NFL Players Association are discussing the possibility of shortening the 2020 preseason.
No decisions have been made, but the report says multiple team executives believe there’s a good chance the preseason will be cut in half, from four games to two games.
A shorter preseason has long been a topic of conversation in the NFL, for reasons that had nothing to do with the particular issues facing the NFL this year. If a shorter preseason goes well this year, it’s easy to see a shorter preseason being adopted beyond this year.