Chiefs training camp: The five biggest questions facing Kansas City

Can we expect more soft tissue injuries in training camp with no offseason workouts?

With no offseason workouts, teams are spending their first couple of weeks at training camp doing what they would have done earlier in the summer—things like walkthroughs and team meetings. Teams will not be able to hit the field in pads until August 17th. The reasoning is that the players were not able to perform their usual offseason workouts with offseason activities being canceled, and most gyms being closed due to the pandemic.

Instead of getting into padded practices after five days, NFL teams will be waiting three weeks. That means less time in pads before the preseason begins. Will there even be a preseason? Combine those two, and that makes for very little time in pads before games start to matter.

Until the season gets underway, it’s hard to tell whether or not less time on the practice field will cause more injuries. However, following the previous CBA that was signed back in 2011, many coaches and analysts believe that less practice time led to bad tackling, poor offensive line play, and, yes, more injuries.

Over the past several years, teams have opted to play their starters less and less each year during the preseason to avoid injuries. Whether that avoided injuries or caused them is unclear as September saw several key players go down for teams all over the league. One could argue that their bodies were not ready for the impact of a full game due to the limited reps during the preseason.