If players can opt-out of the 2020 season, the Denver Broncos will pray it’s none of these three.
We’ve seen it in other sports, so we will probably see it in the NFL — players will likely opt-out of the 2020 season, whatever that ends up looking like.
Especially if the NFL loses games because of a delay or for whatever reason, there will be players who decide they are not going to risk contracting COVID-19 for playing in fewer games for less money.
Right now, all signs point to the NFL carrying on with the regular season as planned, but there will be significant changes about the way fans partake in the festivities. Namely, it’s likely all NFL teams will have a strict cap on the number of fans that can attend games.
Beyond just the fan interaction, players also have families and people they love in their lives who need to be taken into consideration. Every player will calculate that risk for himself, and some players may decide even at some point during the season to opt-out.
All possibilities must be accounted for.
For the Denver Broncos, I think there are three specific players the team cannot afford to lose this season, whether it’s because the player decides to opt-out of the season or because they suffer some kind of major injury.
Here are the guys I think make or break the Broncos’ chances to actually be competitive in 2020.