Report: Patriots Coaches Are Returning to Facility on Voluntary Basis

NFL coaches were permitted to return to the facilities beginning last Friday.

The NFL began the next part of their reopening plan by permitting teams to allow their coaches to return to their team facilities beginning last Friday. But each team is handling their return to their respective facilities different. 

Take the New England Patriots for example; according to The MMQB's Albert Breer, some of New England's coaches returned to Gillette Stadium on Friday, but coaches returning to the facility will be on a voluntary basis until further notice. 

The Giants will have coaches in this week, but that one’s also voluntary. The Patriots’ approach is similar. Some were in Friday, but all of it will be voluntary until further notice.

Other teams are handling their return to their offices a bit different. The Titans, Falcons, and Dolphins will return on Monday. The Ravens will too, with assistants only required to be at the office as needed for the time being. The Bills and Texans will have their coaches and coordinators in-house at some point this week. And the head coaches of the Packers, Bengals, Steelers and Jaguars returned last Friday. The Buccaneers coaches won't be returning until Monday, June 15. Same goes for the Rams, who will open their doors on the 15th for coaches on an optional basis. 

Players that do not require some type of offseason rehab have yet to return to the team facilities, and it doesn't look like they will be returning anytime soon. Breer also mentioned in his Monday morning column that minicamps - which could have potentially taken place later this month - are "dead", according to one of his sources. "But we’re at the point now, where it’s pretty much logistically impossible for the league and union to make full-squad minicamps happen before the end date for offseason programs, which was negotiated to be June 26," Breer wrote.

He also notes that there is a chance that players could return to team facilities before June 26, but labeled it as "possible, though maybe not likely." What has been discussed is rookies and new veterans could return to the team facilities "allowing those guys to take physicals and close the loop on their rookie contracts, free agent deals or trades."