Pete Carroll would be OK with pushing back camp

[Blitz]

Getty Images

Less than two weeks from now rookies are scheduled to report to training camp. The NFL and NFL Players Association still have major issues to negotiate before then.

Time no longer is on the NFL’s side.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is not opposed to temporarily pausing the opening of training camps.

“Whatever we need to do to do this right is what I hope we do,” Carroll told John Clayton on ESPN 710 Seattle on Friday, via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. “If we’ve got to slow down a little bit to get started, that would be OK. There [are] a lot of unsettled issues right now between the league and the players.”

The sides still have to resolve the number of preseason games, testing protocols and potential salary givebacks for 2020. They also need to address whether and when players can opt out of the 2020 season for health and safety concerns.

Carroll noted he hasn’t heard anything about a delay of camp, scheduled for all players on July 28, but said, “I can see us just waiting a little bit. But we’ll see what happens.”

“The start of the [regular] season is such a long ways away for us at this point,” Carroll said, “and we are all going through this together. It is all going to be relative, the competitive aspect is going to be equal as we go through it. But right now if we needed to take a step back and keep drawing information, it seems like we learn so much every couple days. There is so much information coming in. Whatever we need to do to do this right is what I hope we do.”