The Broncos players released a statement through the NFL Players Association on Wednesday saying that they would not take part in voluntary in-person workouts during the offseason program.
Four other teams have released similar statements and all cited a lack of full details from the NFL about the plans for such work this offseason. The league released more detail about those plans on Wednesday. They include virtual meetings for the first four weeks, a one-week second phase featuring virtual meetings and on-field work before a typical three-week OTA period. The final phase would include a three-day mandatory minicamp.
The league also said daily MESA PCR testing for COVID-19 will be in place along with other protocols that were used during the 2020 season. Broncos kicker and head NFLPA rep Brandon McManus said on 104.3 The Fan that the Broncos’ initial decision was based on the information they had and that he expects they’ll revisit the question of participating in light of the league’s release.
“Our team voted based on information we had at that time,” McManus said, via Mike Klis of KUSA. “I’m sure everyone would love to reconvene, I’m sure we will. Obviously we need to digest it. It would be unjust for us to not speak to our guys. Now that we have more information we’ll reconvene about what we think is best moving forward. If some players still believe we shouldn’t go then we’ll handle that in-house. And if people want to go, it is voluntary but what we wanted to do with our original statement was make it from a team standpoint. I don’t think it’s something that can’t be reversed. I’d say we got a reaction from the NFL because now we have a statement.”
The NFLPA sent a memo on Tuesday encouraging players not to participate in in-person work this offseason and has not made any statement about the league’s announcement about the offseason schedule on Wednesday.