The Green Bay Packers will be looking to cement themselves as one of the premier teams in the league going forward in 2024. They are once again one of the youngest teams in the NFL, they are loaded with talent, they have a franchise quarterback on the roster, and they are coming off a season that saw them fall just three points shy of the NFC Championship.
However, head coach Matt LaFleur isn’t in favor of one rule change the NFL is likely to implement next season.
Green Bay Packers Head Coach Matt LaFleur Not A Fan Of Possible Rule Change In 2025
According to Ryan Wood of Packers News:
LaFleur made clear he would not support a potential NFLPA proposal to fundamentally overhaul the league’s offseason schedule.
The players’ association is finalizing a proposal that would eliminate the voluntary on-field work in favor of starting training camp in mid-June to early July, according to an NFL Network report. The proposal could set 2025 as the potential date to change the offseason schedule.
“I would not be in favor of that,” LaFleur said.
The NFL’s current offseason program consists of three stages stretched over nine weeks. The final stage is organized team activities, where teams can conduct voluntary practice with one mandatory minicamp. The schedule then allows for a six-week break between minicamp and the start of training camp in late July.
The NFLPA’s proposal would eliminate the gap between minicamp and training camp, but also give players a longer break between the end of one season and start of the next. It would force teams to truncate their preparation, rather than laying it out in phases over the spring. The NFL had a similar schedule in 2020 when COVID-19 postponed any spring work.
LaFleur said he’d adjust his offseason regimen if the changes were implemented, but he’d prefer the current schedule remain in place.
“I go back to the COVID year,” LaFleur said. “I don’t think that was good for anybody. There’s not a lot of time to get with these guys anyway, and just to cram everything in at the beginning of training camp, I think it’s particularly bad for a lot of undrafted guys. Because you just don’t have the time to invest in the process and learn the playbook. So I just, I don’t think it would be good for the game personally.
A Major Off-Season Change Would Impact Every Roster In The League
Currently, the collectively bargained offseason workout program consists of three phases: meetings (Phase One), individual drills on the field (Phase Two), and organized team activities (Phase Three). Phase Three allows teams to conduct one mandatory minicamp for veterans.
A typical offseason program runs from mid-April to mid-June for most teams. Training camps begin in mid-to-late July after a roughly six-week summer break.
To reduce injuries and maximize players’ recovery time, the NFLPA has consulted medical and performance experts, according to Pelissero. It would still be permitted to conduct virtual classroom work in the spring, but no practices would take place until camp.
Changing the NFL’s offseason could help break up the calendar, giving players a longer ramp-up period before the season begins and a longer layoff after a long season. Under the current structure, some players suffer soft-tissue injuries during training camps, which could prove helpful to avoid these injuries.
This would be their goal anyways.
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