Heading into the 2021 NFL season, it’s no secret that teams with enough vaccinated player will have a competitive advantage. Teams that do meet that threshold will have far less restrictions placed on them in terms of meetings and access within their facilities, and it has many coaches around the league believing that teams with at least 85 percent of their players vaccinated will have a huge competitive advantage.
Despite that advantage, teams are still struggling to meet the benchmark, with only eight teams currently having at least 85 percent of their players vaccinated at the moment, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
Pelissero reported on Monday that the league had seven teams with an 85 percent vaccination rate, but one day later he updated the number to eight teams as another joined the list. He also noted that 71 percent of the players around the league had had at least one shot, while “virtually all Tier 1 and 2 personnel (coaches and administrative staff) have been vaccinated.”
The NFL will not disclose which teams have reached the 85-percent mark or which players have been vaccinated, but it is assumed that it’ll be pretty easy to tell who falls into which category once the season begins and restrictions are places on unvaccinated players. As for those restrictions, they include daily testing, masks, not being able to eat in the cafeteria, and restrictions on capacity within meeting rooms.
