The NFL’s prohibition on player tryouts has been lifted, which is a huge piece of news for the New York Jets.
The reason you—the rabid New York Jets fan—have not heard about any free agent tryouts at Florham Park over the last several weeks is simple and obvious. (Well, perhaps not as obvious as one would initially expect.)
The National Football League would not allow the summer rite of passage due to the ongoing pandemic. In the spirit of keeping everything as controlled as possible, free agent tryouts were not in the cards.
That changes now.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the league has lifted the prohibition on player tryouts.
The NFL just informed clubs the prohibition on tryouts has been lifted immediately, per source.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 11, 2020
“The NFL just informed clubs the prohibition on tryouts has been lifted immediately, per source,” Pelissero tweeted Tuesday evening.
For Joe Douglas and the other 31 NFL general managers, activity has been stagnant during the usually-hot month of August. Keeping as many players as allowed while storing names on the available big board is all one can do prior to this news.
Suddenly, free agents will be traveling all over the map with sights set on an NFL contract. And thanks to that previously-mentioned stagnation, a flurry of tryouts should hit the boards in the coming days, weeks.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, NFL clubs had been banned from bringing in players to their facility, with an exception recently for physicals. Today’s memo clears the way for some free agents teams wanted a closer look at on the field to get signed in the days and weeks ahead.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 11, 2020
“Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, NFL clubs had been banned from bringing in players to their facility, with an exception recently for physicals,” Pelissero added. “Today’s memo clears the way for some free agents teams wanted a closer look at on the field to get signed in the days and weeks ahead.”
Keep a head up for specific names to hit the headlines in relation to the Jets.
Update:
All free agent signings must undergo COVID-19 testing and pass two tests (24 hours apart) before joining the team for activities, per Pelissero. The number of passed tests is three for street free agents (guys who had not been recently-released by another organization).
The tryout limit is eight per day.
Another important answer GMs had been waiting on: All free agent signings still must undergo COVID-19 entry screening, testing negative three consecutive times (street FAs) or two (cut the prior day, waiver claims, trades, etc.) each 24 hours apart before joining team activities. https://t.co/Se7HQX6HsF
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 11, 2020
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