As we noted Tuesday, no preseason games would impact several players on the Patriots. The same is the case with the longer ramp-up period because that means less padded practices and more conditioning work early on.
It also will impact Bill Belichick and the way he constructs the sessions. In the past, Belichick has stressed the spring is all about teaching and then training camp is when the competing starts. With no spring workouts this year, how does Belichick balance teaching and competing, especially when it comes to new and younger players?
There's no question Belichick will need to change some things up.
And then when it comes to rosters, the Patriots have roughly 90 players now so around 10 will need to be let go. How will this be done? Will veteran fringe players get cut since there's already tape on them and rookies will be kept since there's really no information on them? And then will it be roughly one player from each position group? For starters, it's likely the team will not go into training camp with five quarterbacks like it does now.
Along the same lines, it's been a really tough year for rookies not selected high in the draft as there were no pro days for them to showcase their skills and now they won't get the same opportunity as usual in training camp and preseason.
It's likely more tweaks will be needed to be made along the way as the negotiations between the two sides will continue in the coming days and weeks.
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