A lot has been made of the a certain NFL rule this offseason. It prevents draftees from schools that are still in session from participating in OTAs. As far as I know, this only affects guys who played in the Pac-12. Or it at least predominantly affects those players.
The Green Bay Packers’ top draft pick, Kevin King, played at Washington and so was thusly affected. King was in Green Bay for the brief rookie orientation camp and then sent away. Meanwhile, all the Packers’ other players and draftees were at OTAs. King was first able to return to Green Bay for the minicamp that happened this week.
Frankly, for a guy with designs on a starting job — a guy the Packers want to win a starting job — King is now behind his teammates.
In reality, while guys should finish school, most players who are drafted haven’t been in school for a while. They’ve been working out constantly in anticipation of getting drafted. So the rule is actually pretty hypocritical on the NFL’s part.
The Packers were able to find a creative way to keep King somewhat up to speed while he was away. They put King on FaceTime with cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt, who furiously drew on a whiteboard to show the rookie what the Packers were installing during OTAs.
“I wanted to be here with everybody with the other guys going through OTAs and everything,” King said. “Of course, I want to be out there. The rules didn’t allow it. I did everything I could. I did my part.”
When King returned for minicamp, the Packers held him out of team drills. He worked mostly on fundamentals and conditioning during the period.
Also, it shouldn’t go without noting that during his NFL banishment, King wasn’t even in Washington. He was working out in Oakland.
It is a stupid rule. Go to college to learn a profession. Then have your potential in your preferred profession be stunted because you can’t go to work on time.
I know that M. Adams is at the OTAs. Anyone know why he has not been signed yet? It appears that several third round picks have not signed. I thought the new agreement between the players and the league was supposed to make it a no brainer to sign picks.
Mark Murphy is on the NFL competition committee i believe, so his job is to get rid of stupid rules. I guess he fails at that job also.
It may be a stupid rule. But i’m assuming the Packers know the rule, so therefore they knew before they drafted him he wouldn’t be available, so….there isn’t much to whine about.
Or….they didn’t know the rule, which wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
Please find a new picture of this cat, he looks like he’s still in high school.
“King wasn’t even in Washington. He was working out in Oakland.” Pffft, that makes a lot of sense.
I love how they stress the importance of college as if these players will never have the opportunity to return for four months and finish their degree. Like the opportunity to make hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars a year playing professional football will always be available to them. “Nah, I’m more concerned about my ‘education.’ I need to finish my bachelor’s in business management so I can run the local Dicks sporting goods for 30k when I get done with football.”