First "deadline" for Justin Houston and Brandon Flowers coming next week

UPDATE: The Chiefs have released Brandon Flowers.

The Kansas City Chiefs have been missing two starters at OTAs -- CB Brandon Flowers and LB Justin Houston. They did not show up for the first OTA, nor for any of the others. Now that we're done with OTAs, there is a deadline of sorts for both players and it comes next week

All the OTAs to this point have been but from June 17-19 the Chiefs will be holding their mandatory minicamp. It's called mandatory because players can be fined for not showing up. This is the first "deadline" involved with those two because everything to this point has been voluntary.

Now, if one of these players, perhaps Houston, plans on striking a long-term contract extension, the fine money for missing mandatory minicamp would be peanuts compared to what a new long-term deal could be, so the fines may not make someone show up.

On Friday, Andy Reid was asked about both players and their plans for mandatory minicamp and he said he did not know.

"I don't know that," Reid said Friday. "Really, it's all their decisions to come or don't come even though it's a mandatory camp. We'll see. The thing that you're guaranteed of is that we're going to coach whoever is here. We just don't really worry about the ones that aren't. We just go about our business and do our thing."

This is just the first deadline for players who have not shown up to offseason workouts. The next one will be training camp and then the season and so on.

How much can they be fined for skipping mandatory minicamp?

All three days? $60,000. From the CBA:

Unexcused failure to report to or unexcused departure from mandatory offseason minicamp-maximum fine of $10,000 for the first missed day, which amount shall increase by $10,000 per day for each day of the player's absence or departure (e.g., a player who misses all three days of minicamp may be fined up to $60,000).

Why has Flowers been absent?

Basically, we know nothing. But we can guess!

There has been speculation over the summer that the Chiefs could release or trade Flowers. This is complete speculation and not something that's coming from the Chiefs, so who knows if those rumors and reports are true. Something related to that is the only speculation surrounding Flowers' absence.

Why has Houston been absent?

The speculation is that this is related to his contract. He's entering the final year of his rookie deal and obviously deserves a big pay raise. It was reported a while back that the Chiefs were talking with his reps about a new deal but that's about all we know at this point.