When rookie Troy Aikman arrived at the Dallas Cowboys’ training camp at Lutheran College in Thousand Oaks, California, he faced what NFL players do not experience anymore. In 1989, under first-year head coach Jimmy Johnson, Aikman practiced in grueling heat at a camp that stretched close to six weeks. Aikman’s rookie season still proved difficult as he went 0–11 as a starter, but due to that brutal preparation in camp, early-season injuries never became an issue for him.

Fast forward to today, and the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) drastically reduced training camp practice time, giving players far more rest and recovery days. But according to Troy Aikman, these player-friendly changes have an unintended, negative impact on early-season health.

“I think they only pad one day a week or one time a day, and they have a walk-through, and then after, I don’t know how it all reads, but it’s pretty player-friendly and favorable,” Troy Aikman said recently on the Rodeo Time podcast. “And a lot of it, whenever they negotiate the CBA, the owners tend to always win on the financial side of things. Then the players say, ‘Well, all right, then we’re not going to practice as long, or we’re not going to practice as often.’ So, then they tend to get concessions when it comes to how much time they’re actually at facilities.”

“I think the only ones who don’t have a voice in those negotiations are the coaches,” Aikman added. “They kind of have to wait till the dust settles and say, ‘All right, just how often do we get them?’ But some of it is that we see a lot of the reasons I think that we see so many injuries, especially early in the year. A lot of soft tissue injuries, a lot of muscle pulls, and things of that nature.”

The current CBA, ratified in 2020, placed strict limits on offseason practices to improve player safety. One of the biggest victories for NFL players involved reducing offseason workload. Under the 2020 CBA, NFL teams must begin training camp with an “acclimation period” of five days during which they can only conduct limited activities. After that period ends, the CBA rules state that NFL players cannot spend more than four hours per day on the field across two practices, and no single practice can last longer than 2.5 hours.

Under the previous CBA, NFL teams could hold up to 28 padded practices during training camp, with few restrictions on consecutive days aside from scheduled breaks. But with the 2020 CBA, NFL teams can conduct only 16 padded practices in camp, and they cannot schedule more than three practices in a row. While these rules aim to protect players, Troy Aikman believes they may unintentionally create another problem: players’ bodies may not be fully prepared for the physical toll of a 17-game season.

Consider the example of Denver Broncos tight end Evan Engram during the 2025 season opener. Engram entered the season feeling healthy after a full offseason of preparation. But late in the third quarter of the Broncos’ Week 1 matchup against the Tennessee Titans, he caught a pass for a third-down conversion and limped back to the sideline. 

In the fourth quarter of the game, the Broncos ruled Engram questionable to return due to a calf injury. He finished the game with three catches for 21 yards and remained limited in practice leading into Week 2. As per Troy Aikman, this kind of injury is becoming more common because players aren’t conditioning their bodies enough in the offseason.

“The players, they’re just not able to train the way that we once did, and they’re not able to callous their bodies as easily,” Aikman said. “Not that they’re not training hard and all that, but it’s different training on your own as opposed to then all of a sudden you’re on the football field going through football movements. It taxes you a little bit more.”

Troy Aikman also mentioned that in recent years, he has seen Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott out at restaurants and around Austin during training camp because of the reduced practice schedule. But Prescott actually delivered one of the best seasons of his career in 2025, throwing for 4,552 yards, 30 touchdowns, and just 10 interceptions while playing all 17 games, even after recovering from a hamstring injury. So, that extra time off has not exactly hurt Prescott’s regular-season performance.

Still, over the last few years, this reduced practice offseason time has become a major point of conflict, even with legendary NFL coaches like Bill Belichick. 

Belichick raised concerns over the offseason workout limits set in the 2011 CBA

When the NFL and the NFL Players Association finalized the 2011 CBA, the agreement also reduced the number of organized offseason workouts for players. But back in 2013, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick directly connected the NFL’s rising injury numbers to reduced preparation.

“I’m in favor of total preparation for the players for the season,” Belichick said in a conference call with the media ahead of his team’s Week 18 game in 2013. “And I think that’s been changed significantly and, I would say, not necessarily for the better, when you look at the injury numbers. You have a gap between preparation and competition level. And I think that’s where you see a lot of injuries occurring.” 

“We get a lot of breakdowns. We get a lot of situations that players just aren’t as prepared as they were in previous years, in my experience anyway.”

Bill Belichick’s frustration was clear at the time as he was trying to guide the Patriots back to the Super Bowl, but several of the team’s key contributors were on injured reserve. During the 2013 season, the Patriots were hit hard by injuries with tight end Rob Gronkowski, defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, linebacker Jerod Mayo, and offensive tackle Sebastian Vollmer suffering season-ending injuries. 

Still, NFL spokesman Michael Signora disputed Bill Belichick’s claims at the time by stating, “We carefully monitor player injuries. There is no evidence that the new work rules have had an adverse effect on the injury rate or that injuries have, in fact, increased.”

Even so, considering the injury concerns that Troy Aikman also pointed out, some NFL team owners have suggested relaxing certain rules that limit contact between first-year players and coaches. Still, major rollbacks of offseason restrictions appear unlikely in the next round of CBA negotiations, even as the NFL season grows longer and concerns about player injuries continue to rise.