Momentum for a return to football continues to build.
The NFL on Monday sent out instructions on mandatory disinfecting and distancing protocols for when players are allowed back in team headquarters. Sports Illustrated reported that players could report to training camp as soon as mid-July.
But none of that changes this reality: Weeks of practice and hundreds of hours of hands-on instruction and conditioning are forever lost, and there will be teams unprepared for the start of the 2020 season because of it.
This isn't a hypothetical.
We know this because it happened in 2011, when owners locked out players from mid-March until late-July.
The Browns, predictably, were among the biggest jokes. They lost their opener to the Bengals in large part because they were "disorganized for most of the game," according to the Associated Press' game story.
The comical climax: Cleveland's defense could barely break the huddle and wasn't lined up properly on what ended up being the game-deciding touchdown pass. A.J. Green was simply uncovered, and scored easily.
Granted, the Browns are often a laughingstock. But their on-the-nose ineptitude in Week 1 was part of a broader issue.
Some teams were not ready for football.
And among those that struggled the most: Those with new offensive and defensive coordinators, who had little time to install their systems during the truncated practice schedule.
Will the Dolphins _ who have a new offensive coodinator in Chan Gailey and a new defensive coordinator in Josh Boyer _ be like the 2011 Vikings, who went 3-13 with a washed-up Donovan McNabb and an ill-equipped Christian Ponder?
They would prefer to be the 2011 49ers, who rode an efficient veteran quarterback (Alex Smith), a fierce defense and much-improved coaching (under Jim Harbaugh) to the NFC Championship Game.
The most likely scenario? They will be the 2011 Titans, who remained in playoff contention late in the season thanks to solid play by a journeyman quarterback (Matt Hasselbeck), who took all-but-a-handful of snaps once Tennessee's top-10 pick (Jake Locker) proved he wasn't ready.
Of course, this is all conjecture in June, and will remain that way until September. But no one can deny the Dolphins will face challenges in developing the league's sixth-youngest roster with little but a video camera and a WiFi connection.
"We're making the best of the situation," Dolphins coach Brian Flores said last week. "I've tried to tell them, we're not going to make excuses or point fingers or say this is why something didn't happen. We're going to make the best of the situation and try to improve, try to get better, try to improve. I don't have different words to say that. We'll just try to improve and get better and we'll try to do that on a day-to-day basis."
But how do you gauge improvement when you don't see how well the players _ particularly Miami's nearly two-dozen rookies _ can apply the classroom lessons to the field?
Take, for instance, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, the fifth pick in the draft. In an ideal world, he would already have five weeks of NFL study and practice in the bank. Instead, he remains somewhat of an enigma even to his coaches; Flores had no update on Tagovailoa's recovery from hip surgery last week because "our doctors haven't seen him."
But even if health was no concern, it's hard to see how Tagovailoa beats out Ryan Fitzpatrick _ who played in Gailey's system both with the Jets and Bills _ for the starting job. Tagovailoa will have just seven weeks from the start of camp to the season opener to eclipse the team's 2019 MVP on the depth chart.
Rather, expect the trend leaguewide to be as it was in 2011, when just two of the league's 32 Week 1 starting quarterbacks were rookies (the Panthers' Cam Newton and the Bengals' Andy Dalton).
"You have to rely on guys to do some studying away from those [Zoom] calls at home," Fitzpatrick said. "The one thing we've found is instead of having humongous meetings where it's the whole offense, or the whole team, being able to break it down to individual groups and have a couple of groups in a Zoom at the same time where there can be open and fluid conversations and questions, that's been the most effective for us.
"Really breaking it down into small groups and having an open forum and having guys ask questions," he added. "I think because of the setting we're in, guys will be a little bit more free to ask questions and maybe not as shy to chime in or to raise their hand virtually _ the different things you can do. I think they have been pretty productive. I don't think it's been perfect by any means and I'd much rather do it in person; but we're doing the best we can and I think they have been productive."
Added Dolphins veteran safety Bobby McCain: "You're just going to have to be ready, and you've got to hold yourself accountable to being a pro. You've got to be a pro and if you're not, you won't last."
That goes for players and coaches.
After 2011, seven teams made a change at head coach.
Including the Miami Dolphins.
