KC Chiefs QB Alex Smith is pretty level-headed so I’m not surprised he gave a level-headed response to a reporter asking about the Chiefs three stars missing from OTAs (Eric Berry, Justin Houston and Marcus Peters).
“It’s voluntary, right?” Alex said when asked about it via quotes from the Chiefs. “I got nothing on those guys. They’re veterans. They’ve all played at a really high level and continue to play at a high level. They’re not here right now and we’ve got to go. Certainly there will be times in the season when stuff like that happens and the next guy needs to play. Those guys that are here need to take advantage of those reps and that time.”
Maclin, another team leader, wasn’t concerned and said they’ll welcome them with open arms when they return.
I’ve been blogging about the NFL for long enough to know that we often spend a lot of extra energy worrying about things like this when it’s unnecessary. Justin Houston missed a bunch of offseason workouts in 2014 and went on to nearly break the NFL sack record. Eric Berry missed a bunch of workouts last year and put up one of the best seasons for a safety in recent memory. Skipping workouts doesn’t necessarily mean anything. The players negotiated this into the CBA. The NFL should give them something if they want to turn voluntary into mandatory.
Poll
What do you think about the Chiefs players skipping OTAs?
This poll is closed
-
66%
I don’t care, they’re voluntary
(1502 votes) -
33%
They should be here
(767 votes)
I also try to look at this from a fan perspective. I can understand the fan who says they want their team’s star players to show up to practice. I mean, I totally get that. There’s always going to be pushback that these are voluntary but I’m just saying, seeing your team give a guy $78 million or $100 million and wanting him to show up to voluntary practices (or at least know where he is) doesn’t seem unreasonable either.
I broke my own rule here and started to worry about something for a brief second we probably didn’t need to worry about. I have zero doubt all three of these players will be ready even if they skip the rest of the voluntary workouts.