Kansas City Chiefs announce offseason workout program dates
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs officially unveiled their spring and summer workout program dates along with the rest of the NFL on Monday.
The Kansas City Chiefs are officially two weeks away from having players return for the voluntary offseason workout program. The NFL unveiled the spring and summer workout dates for each and every team on Monday, and the Chiefs were announced as getting underway with Phase One beginning on April 16, per a press release.
Everything during this period is considered voluntary, although it’s pretty rare for a player to skip such workouts. Remember last year, just a few Chiefs players chose to work out on their own or stay away from the team—including Justin Houston, Eric Berry and Marcus Peters—while the rest returned to Arrowhead to gear up for the 2018 regular season.
Starting on April 16 and continuing for two weeks, the facilities are open for players to return and workout with the team to work on strength and conditioning. The ensuing three weeks, Phase Two, can take things a bit further by including some on-field work. Players can participate in drills on the field or even complete practices with their larger unit, but teams are not yet allowed to play against each other in an offense vs. defense type of exhibition.
Beginning on May 22, however, the final four weeks of the offseason program will include 10 actual practice days during which teams can practice as “all out” as possible without allowing live contact. Teams can put players in 11 on 11 or 7 on 7 drills for competition. All of this wraps up before minicamp.
The Chiefs also announced mandatory minicamp will be held on June 12-14. This is the only time before training camp that team can demand their players be there or else face a penalty, and it is often the source of a bit of drama depending on who shows up and who decides to make a point about their contract.
The schedule rundown:
First day of offseason workouts: April 16
OTA workouts: May 22-24, May 29-31, June 5-8
Mandatory Minicamp: June 12-14