The Falcons reopened their training facility in a limited capacity on Tuesday and will have up to 20 people in the building by the end of the week.
No players or coaches are allowed back in the facility at the moment. Until all 32 NFL teams can open their facilities, coaches and players are prohibited from entering the building.
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The only case where players are permitted in the building is for rehab purposes solely.
The number of people in the building in this initial phase cannot exceed 75 and the Falcons are taking a methodical approach to ensure they provide the safest environment possible.
Falcons president and CEO Rich McKay answered several questions from the local media on Tuesday morning and here are a couple of the key takeaways:
On whether or not to expect fans to be in attendance at games this year:
There's still a long way to go before any decisions are made regarding if fans will be in attendance for NFL games.
"We're not getting caught up in that right now," McKay said. "We've worked on what we know is right in front of us and right in front us right now is trying to get our facility open. The first phase being this operational opening, the second phase being getting more people in the building, including coaches and then the third phase getting players in. We're focused on that. What may happen in training camp or in the preseason, we have the benefit of time. We're not getting caught up in that because in our mind that's pure speculation and we would be trying to have answers in certain situations where we might not even know the question. We're trying to learn from others and not trying to get ahead of ourselves."
When can players who have pending physicals get back in the building?
One of the biggest hurdles NFL teams had to deal with this offseason was the inability to get physicals done on players with the COVID-19 restrictions.
The Falcons signing Todd Gurley is an example of how a team went about signing a player in free agency without the information they would typically have from a physical.
Gurley is currently living in California and the league prohibited any travel for purposes of physicals for players.
"They can when the league says they can," McKay said. "The league's rule right now prohibits traveling people for purposes of physicals. And prohibits other than those who are getting rehab from being in your facility. Those restrictions remain. "
How the NFL would ensure players have enough time to get back into football shape when they are allowed back in the building:
With the virtual NFL offseason, players and coaches are unable to get any of the on-field and classroom work they typically would during their offseason program.
So how is the NFL planning to give players enough time to get back into football shape before jumping into training camp and the preseason?
"I think guys will be in better shape than you think," McKay said. "It will take a little while and we must do it safely. We need days to ramp up, we need days to take our time and getting these guys up to speed. I think the union will be very cognizant of that and so will we. The difference will be to get up to football shape and playing speed yes that does take time."
