Noah Spence Injury Highlights an Issue for NFL Players Working Out on Their Own

As first reported on May 26th, New Orleans Saints defensive end Noah Spence suffered a torn ACL while working out away from the team. The reason why he was working out away from the team is due to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down offseason workouts at team facilities. Since this was the case, the Saints had already elected to not even require any virtual workouts or activities for players during their allowed window. Any individual preparation was conducted by the player or players on their own and not run by the team or under the watchful eye of any team personnel. 

Spence was not doing anything wrong, but now his 2020 season is likely over or at least in jeopardy, and the team has placed him on the non-football injury list. What this means is that Spence no longer counts against the team's 90 man roster and they can go ahead and sign another player to take his roster spot. It also means Spence cannot play for the Saints at all this year and the team would not be required to pay his salary. 

All of this can cause a huge ripple effect for any players who might injure themselves while trying to physically prepare for the upcoming season. With team facilities having been shut down during this time of social distancing, players have had to find their own way to prepare their bodies for the season. I'm sure some players are still getting together for both on-field and off-field workouts, but these are still not team sanctioned at all. This means the players are on their own and if anything happens to them, the team has no obligation to these players at all. 

I do expect the Saints and most other teams to at least offer an injury settlement to these players. This would mean the player would get paid some sort of negotiated amount of their salary for 2020 but would still be placed on injured reserve. If this happens with Spence, he could still get paid some amount from the Saints and be released. This way, if he is capable of playing at all this season, he would be eligible to sign with another team. He is currently on just a one-year contract so this option may be appealing to him before he enters another free-agent period. 

The Noah Spence injury could be a warning sign for other players currently conducting their own workouts away from their teams. I'm sure how any other occurrences are handled will depend on a team and player-by-player basis. Unless teams start talking to each other and colluding, there is probably no one way to handle any player injuries during this current time. There is always the chance the players union and owners come to an agreement on how to deal with this special circumstance we are all currently living through, but I find this unlikely. Players will need to be careful especially if they do not have a long-term contract as a potential safety net. The expendable players will probably be shown the door much like Spence has been.