When news broke of Terry McLaurin seeking a new contract — which, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, involves McLaurin not participating in any "on-field work" during offseason workouts — JP Finlay seemed to call into question the newsworthiness of the nugget. For good reason, it turns out.
That's because, as Finlay notes, while the Commanders did in fact begin their offseason workouts on Monday, they were limited to lifting weights and physical conditioning. In other words, there was no on-field work for McLaurin to skip.
Now, in fairness to Schefter, he did mention that McLaurin "still plans to report on time for the start of Washington's program." Still, at the earliest, McLaurin wouldn't be excluding himself from any on-field work until May 2, hence Finlay's reluctance to report on it now.
To gain a full grasp on this, it's important to understand the various levels of offseason workouts. Warning: This may quickly start to feel like minutiae, but the details below will give you a clearer understanding of why this could move from a non-issue at present time into something in short order.
There's a key distinction fans need to understand between the "voluntary" and "mandatory" portions of offseason workouts. OTAs (Organized Team Activities) are all considered voluntary, while minicamps can hold differing degrees of participation requirements, including mandatory, depending on the coach's discretion (more on that below).
Voluntary offseason workouts — which are broken into three separate phases — consist of nine-week programs run by each team that are intended to "provide training, teaching and physical conditioning for players over the course of three scheduled phases," according to the NFL.
Phase One: This began on Monday for the Commanders and is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning and physical rehabilitation. It makes up the first two weeks of the program, which puts phase one for the Commanders on track to be completed by May 2.
Phase Two (*approx. May 2 through May 23): On-field workouts can begin during this three-week portion of the program and may include individual or group instruction and drills. Among the permitted drills, offensive players can line up across from offensive players, and defensive players can line up across from defensive players — all conducted at a walk-through pace. No live contact, or team offense vs. team defense drills are permitted.
Phase Three (*late May through mid-June): Over the final four weeks of the voluntary offseason workout program, teams may conduct a total of 10 days of OTAs. This can include 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills, but no live contact is permitted. Teams can hold various minicamps during this phase.
*All dates are approximate. The NFL notes that teams may choose to schedule their OTAs and minicamps at different times, but OTAs are generally held "over a series of days in late May and early June." Each team can hold only one mandatory minicamp, within the first three weeks of June. Dates for voluntary minicamps can vary but will be held before the start of the 2022 NFL Draft on April 28.
In summation, everything Schefter reported may well be correct. From his perspective, lumping McLaurin's situation in with those of A.J. Brown and Deebo Samuel's services a bigger picture. When broken down on a more granular local level, specific to McLaurin, it's a bit premature.
