The New York Giants and New York Jets have reportedly suspended their travel plans amid the coronavirus outbreak.
NFL teams have begun to take action regarding their pre-draft plans in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, and the two hometown teams are following suit.
Both the New York Giants and New York Jets are reportedly suspending travel for the time being. Either team had coaches and scouts traveling for pro days at various college campuses, and those individuals will apparently be pulled off the road.
Jets, Giants suspending travel for team personnel https://t.co/6086q9cBDD
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 12, 2020
Art Stapleton of USA Today reported on Wednesday that the Giants hadn’t made alterations to their travel plans. Multiple coaches were on the road for pro days, including offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who was at Oklahoma University. Bret Bielema, the Giants outside linebackers coach, was at the University of Wisconsin.
I'm told #NYGiants have yet to alter any of their pre-draft travel plans with regard to Pro Day and campus visits due to coronavirus concerns.
OC Jason Garrett + senior offensive assistant Derek Dooley are at Oklahoma today, per sources, and OLB coach Bret Bielema at Wisconsin.
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) March 11, 2020
It’s unclear how long travel will be suspended for, but this outbreak definitely gets worse before it gets better. Don’t expect teams to allow coaches to go anywhere anytime soon.
So what will this do to the pre-draft process? Well, it will certainly affect athletes who were looking to impress at pro days. Those are events where many players’ stocks begin to rise.
Numerous pro days are succumbing to cancellations amid these same concerns, at least according to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post.
Giants are pulling all their scouts and coaches off the road in response to Covid-19.
Many of the workouts at the colleges are being cancelled anyway.— Paul Schwartz (@NYPost_Schwartz) March 12, 2020
So what about the draft itself?
It’s yet to be determined what changes will be made to this massive event, which takes place April 23-25 in Las Vegas. Obviously, people will have to travel for that, so expect the NFL to make alterations, some of which may be drastic.
