The Cooley Zone: Our offseason schedule is all messed up

Good read:

The end of the football offseason is fully underway as the NFL has progressively shortened the time between the last game and the first workout. Most players just spent the better part of the last four months working out with their team: hitting the weight room four or five times a week and attending mini-camp and OTA's (official team workouts). Most guys made the choice to show up for team activities simply because someone was keeping track, but whether they liked it or not, with over a month left before training camp, players are quicker, stronger and healthier.

The Cooley Zone: Our offseason schedule is all messed up - Shutdown Corner - NFL - Yahoo! Sports (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/The-Cooley-Zone-Our-offseason-schedule-is-all-m?urn=nfl,90189#comments)

Well its hard to argue with that right?

Interesting!! Sounds as though maybe the guys would rather not have that month to get out of shape.

It does seem a little messed up. It's a tough thing to juggle. You want to break things up enough so guys don't get worn down physically and mentally, but you want to keep everyone sharp at the same time. It's a delicate balancing act.

But these guys are world class athletes. I exercise/lift all the time, and trust me, unless they spend the 4+ weeks between the end of OTAs and the start of training camp doing absolutely nothing but drinking beer and eating junk, they're not going to lose much physically. A few maintenance workouts during each of those weeks and they should be just fine. Given the brevity of this blog, I'd say it's not a huge issue. I just think he didn't have much material this week.

There has to be a reason for this because it is so obvious. Is there some type of rules in the CBA about when OTAs can be and so forth?

That makes sense, does seem a little backward.

Side note: Cooley is a beast on the weight training game

Good point by Cooley. But on the other hand, there is no rule that says a player "IS REQUIRED" to take a month off prior to training camp starting. If good to his word, then Cooley will be continuing his daily workouts while in Wyoming (or not going at all) to maintain his playing shape and not allow that month off to effect his regime.

I think the break is more for the coaches than the players. But it seems like something that could be re-worked a bit.

Cooley's just mad because the time off means Christy will have him taking out the trash more...

The Official Blog of Chris Cooley: Taking out the Trash (http://chriscooley47.blogspot.com/2008/06/taking-out-trash.html)

He makes an interesting point. I think any way the schedule is would have its' negativities, like for instance if they spread OTA's out so that players do OTA's for a week and then have the next week off, and then come back week after that to do more OTA's, i.e. spreading them out a little, well that probably wouldn't help the coaches if the coaches benefit from having a month off between OTA's and training camp.

So any way the schedule is could have it's negativities. I do think something should be changed though, maybe there are a lot of players that pretty much take the month off to drink beer and relax and that undoes everything the players gain from OTA's.