What's In Store for Offseason Workouts?
The New England Patriots became early Wednesday afternoon the fifth team around the NFL to have its players announce through the NFLPA that they would not be attending voluntary offseason workouts.
The Miami Dolphins are scheduled to begin their offseason program Monday, but it's fair to say its status is up in the air based on the NFLPA desire for an all-virtual offseason program the same as last spring, plus the players from the four teams taking a stand.
The Patriots players followed the Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions in announcing their boycott of offseason workouts, which again are voluntary per the Collective Bargaining Agreement except for one minicamp.
In the case of the Patriots, the NFLPA statement indicated that "many of us" would be skipping the voluntary offseason workouts, which suggests that some players would be on hand.
And this is where perhaps the issue of workout bonuses come into play, and what perhaps needs to be monitored as it pertains to the Dolphins.
The Dolphins roster includes 13 players with 2021 workout bonuses ranging from $25,000 to $200,000 for kicker Jason Sanders, according to spotrac.com.
Sanders, who signed a five-year contract extension in the offseason, but it starts in 2022. For this year, his base salary is $900,000, so $200,000 is most definitely not an insignificant amount.
The next largest workout bonus, according to spotrac.com, goes to DeVante Parker at $100,000; followed by Albert Wilson and Jesse Davis at $75,000; Allen Hurns and Jakeem Grant at $50,000; and Xavien Howard, Emmanuel Ogbah, Eric Rowe, Ereck Flowers, Zach Sieler, Clayton Fejedelem and Adam Shaheen at $25,000.
NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith made the case for a second consecutive virtual offseason in a Twitter post when he stressed that the goal was pushing for the safest possible way for the NFL to prepare and complete the 2021 season.
