Will KC Chiefs players also sit out voluntary workouts?

As of press time, three NFL franchises have had their players decide to not take part in any voluntary workouts this spring as teams prepare their rosters for the 2021 regular season. Those teams—the Denver Broncos, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Seattle Seahawks—made official statements via the NFL Players Association as a united front declaring that they would not be participating this year given the state of the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic and the need to think of safety first.

On Tuesday, the Broncos became the first team to make such an announcement, but by day’s end, three teams were involved, including the defending Super Bowl champions.

Given the immediate surge in teams who are not participating and the level of respect of the teams involved, specifically one led by future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady, it makes sense to wonder if this will eventually become a fully united effort on the part of the NFLPA, one that would include the K.C. Chiefs and every other one of the 31 NFL teams.

Will the K.C. Chiefs players follow suit and avoid in-person voluntary workouts?

By definition, the very term “voluntary workouts” keeps this from being any real issue with owners. If a player volunteers to show up and work out, he can, but in this instance, everyone is just making the same decisions together to not show up. In a normal year, various players would undoubtedly feel pressured to show up despite the “voluntary” nature of things, but this year it seems as if the pressure might be reversed. If so, it will be interesting to see if any players “cross a line” in order to show up and work out anyway, despite such statements given.

The Seahawks statement says it well when determining their hopes for this time, “Our hope is that we will see a positive shift in the COVID-19 data that will allow for a safe return for players when mandatory workouts are set to begin.”

How this will affect the Chiefs is anyone’s guess, but if the Chiefs decide to follow suit here, their concerns will be the same as anyone else. For players with a workout bonus, there are serious financial questions to ask and have answered here. For newer players, it’s going to be a challenge to get up to speed in some ways, although the experience of last year’s fully virtual offseason should give each team a real head-start in terms of how to approach incoming players. For the Chiefs, that means on-boarding players like guards Kyle Long and Joe Thuney, fullback Michael Burton, and defensive tackle Jarran Reed.

According to the official NFL calendar, all teams were allowed to open offseason workouts starting Monday, April 19.