The restrictions placed in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have offered up its own set of challenges for teams preparing for the 2020 NFL season. It appears not even New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is immune to the stresses of conducting virtual meetings on Zoom.

According to Zack Cox of NESN, Belichick admits that it was difficult trying to find ways to keep everyone engaged during online meetings this offseason:

“We had a lot of individual meetings,” Belichick explained. “Our team meetings were more limited because just the quality of having a meeting with 60 or 90 people as opposed to four or five. The engagement’s a lot higher (in smaller meetings). The engagement’s a lot better. The mute button doesn’t have to be off like it does when you have 100 people on the meeting and so forth. We learned a lot about those virtual meetings, and we definitely did a lot of things to try to heighten the engagement.”

Belichick's comments are indicative of the kind of challenges teams have had to navigate through just to try and replicate what a normal offseason would consist of. It is safe to say that coaches are happy to finally be able to get to speak firsthand with their players thanks to the start of training camp.

Unfortunately, the Patriots have also been forced to deal with the league-high number of players that opted out of playing the 2020 campaign due to the risks involved with the ongoing pandemic. Not only is Belichick tasked with getting his remaining key players up to speed, but also the backups that will be taking on increased roles this season.

It will be interesting to see how New England fares under all the circumstances they have been forced to play through.