With the NFL Scouting Combine on hold for 2021, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the league has had to evaluate college players differently, attending local and regional medical evaluations as well as pro days on college campuses. Three players from Notre Dame had to miss a screening this week after testing positive for the disease: tackle Liam Eichenberg, offensive lineman Aaron Banks and defensive end Ade Ogundeji. Currently, the plan is to have them return in about ten days after they have cleared the COVID-19 protocols, so their evaluations would still take place about a week or so before the 2021 draft. Eichenberg is ranked #41 in Daniel Jeremiah’s Top 50 prospects and should start on Sundays this fall. Banks was an All-American who made All-ACC this season, starting 25 games in the last two seasons. He should go early in Day 2, and Ogundeji is projected to go in one of the late rounds.
Check out some other COVID-related news items that could influence your NFL betting this fall.
NFL News: April 8 COVID-19 Report
Scientific study links COVID-19 spikes with NFL game attendance
The Texas Rangers made the news in Major League Baseball by opening their stadium at 100% capacity for the team’s home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays earlier this week. No other team has opened their capacity that wide, although the NBA, NHL and other leagues are welcoming fans back, primarily at rates around 20 percent of full seating capacity. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last week that he wanted all stadiums open at 100 percent for the fall. However, The Lancet, a scientific journal, released a study suggesting a link between sporting events with large crowds and spikes in infections in the areas around the stadiums. The researchers used positive case numbers from counties surrounding the stadiums where the 32 teams play and found that, in games that had more than 5,000 fans in attendance, infection surges took place two to three weeks later. The Florida Department of Health also released a study indicating that COVID-19 infection rates were higher in Tampa than in the rest of Florida following the Super Bowl at Raymond James Stadium. As the United States potentially enters a fourth wave of infection, it will be interesting to see how this study influences league policy and fan choices.
Buffalo’s Allen causes a stir with vaccine comments
Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen went on The Ringer’s podcast on Wednesday with Kyle Brandt and said that he is still undecided about getting the COVID-19 vaccine himself. He said, “I’m a big statistics and logical guy. So if statistics show it’s the right thing for me to do, I’d do it. Again, I’d lean the other way too, if that’s what it said. I haven’t been paying attention to it as much as maybe I should have.” The fact that Allen has not been paying attention to the vaccine may have been the most problematic part of his comments, given the nature of the pandemic. Buffalo is in a fairly conservative part of New York state, and his views may mirror those of many Bills fans.
NFL prospects who opted out are trying to gain visibility with pro teams
Over 150 college players sat out the 2020 season in order to protect themselves and those around them from COVID-19. That means that NFL teams who are interested in these players are looking at footage that is over a year old and are now talking to them via Zoom. One question that all of these potential pro players face is why they decided to opt out. While many teams seem satisfied with a brief answer, some push, seeking to find out if the players would opt out again in 2021 and asking whether those players really consider themselves team players. Teams will need the talent in the players who opted out of the 2020 campaign, though, so coaches who push too hard may find themselves missing out on talent that would help their teams contend in 2021 and beyond.
NFL Betting Odds
Love betting NFL football? | Xbet Sportsbook offers up to date NFL lines
