Today’s question about the Broncos and the NFL comes from John Williams.
Q: Do you think the lockout will have an effect on the season if and when they get a deal and get back on the field?
A: John, the two sides continue to try to negotiate to get a deal they could vote to ratify next week.
If they can pull that off, folks most likely get a full, uninterrupted preseason and regular season, and the teams would get a full training camp.
But however things unfold in the coming weeks, this season will be a rather tidy test case for what players and coaches have butted heads over for much of the last 15 years.
Coaches and personnel executives have routinely said offseason workouts are essential to build a winning team; that everyone needs to attend; and that it works best if any off time is spaced between workout sessions to avoid having players off for too many consecutive weeks and away from the team complex.
One season, in an effort to control the calendar a little more, Mike Shanahan even held a July minicamp — a rare thing in the league — to try to get the players back into the complex one more time before cutting them loose until the start of training camp later that month.
By contrast, players say they understand football is a year-round endeavor now, that they work out enough on their own, and that they shouldn’t have to spend weeks and months during the offseason at the team complex in group conditioning workouts if they don’t wish to.
They say those offseason workouts should be a matter of choice, not a requirement disguised as voluntary.
Because of the lockout, no team had its usual offseason conditioning programs, passing camps, minicamps or any other full team workouts.
So, players have been left to their own devices to keep themselves in shape and ready to play once training camps begin and they can return to the team facilities.
Many players have enlisted personal trainers or have worked out with their former college strength coaches during the down time. Those players have a better chance of arriving ready to go and then practicing without incident.
In talking to a few strength coaches in the league in recent days, the key for players who have worked out on their own will be whether they also maintained their flexibility to avoid potential hamstring, thigh and groin muscle pulls.
Those types of injuries, which many people believe could be a potentially bigger issue this year, routinely cost players several weeks’ worth of recovery time. And there is always an increased chance of that if players have leaned their workouts too far toward the weight room without the flexibility work as well.
The players who did not do all they could on their own to maintain their flexibility and conditioning, who didn’t do the work, will have a difficult time avoiding injury.
It will also be interesting to see how much discipline the coaching and strength staffs show. Piling on three weeks’ worth of two-a-day practices may not be the way to go if there is any uncertainty about what the players can handle.
The teams may have to be a little more patient, control those pent-up, got-to-get-going impulses after an offseason of no coaching. Teams may simply have to take it a little slower when camps open, even if the training camps are shortened in any way because of the labor negotiations.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
