Kansas City Chiefs schedule of OTAs begins; Branden Albert expected back

Football is here!

Well, sort of. The KC Chiefs are indeed going to be out on the practice field this week but it's not full-fledged football ... yet. The Chiefs begin their series of OTAs on Tuesday, which will continue for the rest of the month. The schedule of OTAs -- there are 10 of them -- looks like this: May 14-16, May 21-23 and May 28-31. The Chiefs will also have a mandatory minicamp from June 4-6.

Full coverage of the offseason program

OTAs stand for Organized Team Activities, which is a fancy way of saying "practice". As noted yesterday, there are restrictions on what the players and coaches can and can't do, such as:

-All coaches are allowed on the field.

-No live contact is allowed

-No one-on-one offense vs. defense drills are permitted (i.e., no offensive linemen vs. defensive linemen pass rush or pass protection drills, no wide receivers vs. defensive backs bump-and-run drills, and no one-on-one special teams drills involving both offense and defense are permitted).

-Special teams drills (e.g., kicking team vs. return team) are permitted, provided no live contact occurs.

-Team offense vs. team defense drills ... are permitted, provided no live contact occurs.

-Teams may require players to wear helmets; no shells are permit­ted

This is phase three of the offseason program. Since the Chiefs had a new head coach this year, the offseason rules allowed them to get started two weeks earlier (April 1) than most teams. The Chiefs practices are open to the media this week so we'll have some coverage of the day's events.

Among the other notable topics for the start of OTAs:

• Branden Albert, the Chiefs left tackle, is expected to return. You can bet he'll be asked about his offseason...
• Will Nico Johnson start? The Chiefs fourth round pick appears to be a candidate to start in the middle. He'll compete with Akeem Jordan, who lined up in that spot in the Chiefs first minicamp.
• Tyler Bray vs. Ricky Stanzi begins.
• Who's leading the No. 2 receiver battle: Donnie Avery or Jon Baldwin?
• The final offensive line spot. So far, we have Branden Albert and Eric Fisher as the bookend tackles, Jon Asamoah at guard and Rodney Hudson at center. Geoff Schwartz and Jeff Allen will be competing for the final guard spot.

More Chiefs news:

Chiefs sign 6, cut 3

Photo gallery: Chiefs rookie minicamp

Tyler Bray stands out

Basketball player turned football player hopes to stick in KC