At this point in time, the NFL is not telling its teams to put players, coaches, and staff in a “hard bubble” in which everyone is basically quarantined together. People on team payrolls generally have the choice to stay in team-supplied hotels, or return home every day after practice.

But as Saints head coach Sean Payton recently told USA Today’s Jarrett Bell, that could change if things get complicated in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Every night, we’ve got 170 stories,” Payton said, referring to people in the team’s employ who could contract the virus. “Some stories are safe ones. Some stories are long ones. The one assistant coach who had it, his nanny got it in Florida. She was in the house when he was there. So, those stories can vary. But, nonetheless, when you’ve got 170, man, you’d better recognize, that’s a lot of stories.

“All I’m trying to do is just reduce those stories. Look, it’s not foolproof. I told ‘em, ‘If you need to go home and see your kids, go.’ This isn’t mandatory. Even for the staff. But at least we’re trying to reduce the possible variables that come into going home and coming back to work.”

Payton said that around two-thirds of his 80-man training camp roster is staying in the team’s hotel bubble, which is about standard. And though none of his players have tested positive for the virus yet, Payton isn’t taking for granted that this is the way it will go all season.

“I’m proud and glad that we haven’t had a positive test, but you need to know something: Just when you think everything is good, bam! We’ll have eight,” the coach concluded. “That’s how this works. This isn’t like we’ve got this figured out. Man, we don’t have this figured out.”

Thus, in a recent call with the league’s Competition Committee, Payton broached the subject of an absolute bubble for playoff teams — should the season get that far down the road without one or more of those “Bam!” moments.

The NFL would prefer to mirror the relative success stories of the NBA and NHL, which have been able to work through their seasons in bubble environments, as opposed to Major League Baseball, which has seen a number of positive tests and game cancellations with a more lax approach.

Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, told reporters on Wednesday that “We have to be flexible. All things are on the table.”

It could be that the NFL is able to manage its season without a hard bubble — and it could also be that a hard bubble, in which every team is quarantined through the week, is the only way to save the season if there is a series of outbreaks. But it’s good to see the league trying to get ahead of this, led by Payton’s mindset.