Switching teams and cities no easy task during COVID-19 for New York Jets' Bradley McDougald

Two weeks ago, Bradley McDougald was just getting used to the idea of being traded. Now the New York Jets safety is having to get caught up to speed on his new defense in a most unusual offseason.

McDougald was acquired along with multiple draft picks in the trade that sent Jamal Adams and a 2022 fourth round pick to the Seattle Seahawks. Now, McDougald will be expected to quickly learn a new defense, an already daunting task made no easier this year by the restrictions around training camp due to COVID-19.

“Nobody got an offseason, OTAs offseason regular offseason this year where we come in from April to June and we get to run back through plays install things - you know I'm getting a whole playbook thrown at me in three to four days,” McDougald said last week on SiriusXM NFL Radio with hosts Charlie Weis and Bill Lekas.

“But you know I'm getting double-dose meetings with my position coach and then I meet with the team and then I met with the defensive backs as a group so I'm getting the information, two times a day you know and it's helping me. And they're easing me into that.”

Weis, coincidentally, was McDougald’s head coach in college at Kansas.

There is the on the field acclimation, certainly made more difficult due to the ongoing pandemic. There is the off the field as well involving a player’s personal life as he switches not just conferences and cities but coasts.

“I will say the personal life of the trade is probably the biggest part,” McDougald said.

“All my life right now still in Seattle, I don't have any kids, but my dog was expecting me home like a week ago so I gotta get all my stuff transferred from Seattle to here and my car. It is just little small stuff like little small personal stuff. But you know once you once you finally find a place to stay or you get a rental car and you actually get around the guys in the locker room - it all starts to ease your mind. And you know, I'm not the first person to be traded and I'm not gonna be the last so to feel sorry for yourself is ridiculous. There’s guys traded in the middle of season which I think would be even worse. So, you know, I think it's a blessing. It's just some things I have to figure out.”

A former undrafted rookie free agent, McDougald feels for those players who are trying to make an NFL roster but will have a different version of training camp including no preseason games. He thinks that the changes due to the coronavirus will change the ability of these undrafted prospects of making a team.

"If this was my undrafted free agent year, I'm pissed. Because some teams have already cut guys before they got in the building," McDougald said. 

"Some teams are going to 80-man roster so they can have the whole team in the building one time. And then, like the Jets, for example, we are 90-man roster so we're still split squad. There are the early report guys like the rookies and the quarterbacks are together and then the vets come in and afternoon workout. So, I mean, it's split but for a guy in his eighth year and not having to go into OTAs - that was a blessing. You know I took that time, and I use the time wisely rehabbed every day I found the personal athletic trainer and then I have my own personal trainer out there in Dallas with Chris Harris, we get great DB work in, and I was able to do a lot of fine tuning on my body. 

"You know, it really rests my body at the same time and since, not to go out there and practice every day I was able to train stay, [stay] in great shape. But it's kind of just a split it's just been to where you're at your career with the COVID situation."