Mandatory minicamps are happening throughout the league. They’re basically OTA practices, without the option of not showing up.
So what’s important, if anything, about these sessions? There are three significant factors.
First, who shows up and, more importantly, who doesn’t? For some players who want new contracts, they’ll incur the fines and stay away. Others will choose to show up despite their contractual concerns. Presence or not at mandatory minicamp helps show how big of a deal the contract issue is.
Second, does everyone come out of the minicamp healthy? Serious injuries have happened in offseason workouts. If the bug bites the wrong guy at the wrong time, that could drastically alter his team’s season.
Third, will any coaches eventually get in trouble for having too much contact during minicamp (or OTAs)? First-year coaches tend to be the biggest potential culprits, either because they’re trying to instill a new culture of physicality or they simply weren’t able to take enough steam out of the guys on the 90-man roster who are trying to earn spots on the final 53.
Contact has long been a reality of offseason workouts, even though there should be none at all. It’s regarded as a given by plenty of coaches. Consider what Rams coach Sean McVay said Tuesday, when he was asked whether some players are wearing red jerseys to send a message of “no contact.”
“It is, but you can see they’re not necessarily following that great,” McVay said. “But you want to be smart with guys like that. And I really think our guys overall, with the etiquette in these OTAs, we’ve been able to positively push one another while minimizing the risk for injury. I think that’s given ourselves a chance to be able to improve as a football team, even in settings that are not ideal coaching-wise because there’s so many things that you don’t do, but as close to mimicking and emulating these types of situations in a smart way is what our guys have done.”
The one thing that shouldn’t be done is contact. But contact happens. Which can lead to injuries and, at times, punishments for teams and coaches that went too far.
Those are two big factors to watch as mandatory minicamps happen and offseason programs come to a conclusion.