Notes: Goodell hints 2021 offseason program could be virtual again

In his annual address at the Super Bowl on Wednesday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suggested another virtual offseason program is not off the table.

Per reports from detroitlions.com’s Tim Twentyman and a handful of tweets, Goodell doesn’t seem to want to give any firm answers on what the 2021 offseason will look like.

What Goodell did say for sure: “Virtual is going to be a part of our life in the long-term.”

Goodell said teams found that installing an offense wasn’t that hard to do virtually, per Twentyman. But the commissioner said coaches say training camp and on-field practices are valuable as well as preseason games to develop younger talent. Meetings with NFLPA aim to work out some of those issues to come to some reasonable solutions.

Though the 2020 NFL season will conclude for the most part successfully this weekend with the Super Bowl, officials are still unsure of what the future holds for many NFL events. One such victim of the uncertainty is the NFL Combine scheduled for March 8 that has now been canceled. Could this 2021 offseason mirror last year’s? NFL Network’s Ian Rapaport says players might not mind.

“I’m not sure any players love coming in and working out in front of your strength coaches in the spring when you’d rather be anywhere else? I don’t think there’s a lot of players who want to be in Green Bay, for instance, in a freezing April when you could be in Arizona or Florida, wherever where a lot of players live,” he said.

BUT!!!! Like any online class, the virtual offseason does lend itself to the potential of encouraging some cheating.

;-) And onto the rest of your notes:

• Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher, now an NFL analyst, says he never thought of the Lions as a tough team — but Dan Campbell might be the guy to change that. Read more from Dave Birkett.

• Trey Flowers weighs in on the Lions’ social justice efforts this past summer in RISE’s Super Bowl LV Critical Conversation.

• From detroitlions.com’s Tim Twentyman — the legend himself Barry Sanders explains why D’Andre Swift should be proud of his rookie year.

• Speaking of Swift, he told CBS Sports that he hopes free agent running back Adrian Peterson returns to the Lions this upcoming year.

• NFL Network’s Cynthia Frelund explains on Drinks with Binks why the Jared Goff contract is an extra struggle this year due to COVID.

• Yesterday was National Girls and Women in Sports Day, so the Lions sent out a reminder about how four of their female employees are keeping the operation running.

• Over on the Rams Digest, one writer argues the Rams need more playmakers for the Matthew Stafford trade to succeed.