Ultimate Mandatory Minicamp Guide: 10 Things That Will and Won't Happen

Welcome to mandatory minicamp week, the most important event on the NFL's June calendar (an admittedly low bar) and the last little island of activity in the offseason archipelago of events before even head coaches go on vacation, leaving us with no football action for a month.

Some of the news emanating from the 28 three-day minicamps this week (four teams held theirs last week) will be important. Much of it will be trivial filler. But all of it will be the only on-field and locker-room news you are going to get until the end of July, so savor it while you can.

This handy preview is your one-stop guide to what will happen and what won't happen this week: who to look for, who not to look for, what really matters and what's just late-spring chatter.

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WILL: Rehabbing veteran quarterbacks will be back in action.

We've already seen exciting glimpses of the progress some of the NFL's best quarterbacks have made as they make comeback bids in 2018.

Aaron Rodgers gave Packers fans something to look forward to last week when he threw a red-zone touchdown to Jimmy Graham in an open-to-the-public OTA practice. Deshaun Watson is reportedly ahead of schedule and has been slinging it around regularly at Texans OTAs. As reported last week, Carson Wentz is dodging rover balls and tossing the occasional seven-on-seven pass to Zach Ertz in Philly.

The Cardinals plan to give Sam Bradford more work during minicamp after his participation "varied" during OTAs. Of course, Bradford's entire career can best be described as "varied participation," but he would be a charter member of the Minicamp Hall of Fame if such a thing existed, so this week is your chance to catch him at his best.

The more structured minicamp sessions will give us a better sense of how far along all these quarterbacks really are as well as one last chance to muse about Rodgers' contract demands, the Texans' rebuilt offense and various Philly political brouhahas and manufactured quarterback controversies.

Some minicamp quarterback news already trickled in last week. Ryan Tannehill was a full participant in Dolphins minicamp, and Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post described Tannehill as "a bit more grown up and emboldened than earlier in his career" and "lighter, maybe happier" than in the past. Tannehill turns 30 this summer; the fact we are still talking about his maturity and happiness could be a commentary on the millennial generation but is more likely a commentary on the Dolphins.

WON'T: Andrew Luck won't be.

Colts head coach Frank Reich told reporters last week Luck is "real close" to throwing a football again for the first time in a span of nearly three Star Wars movies, meaning he is not real close to leading any seven-on-seven drills.

For those of you tracking Luck's recovery using the same tool the Colts use (the Mayan long-count calendar), he's on schedule to return to action sometime in the next "baktun."

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

WILL: Odell Beckham Jr. will be at Giants camp.

ESPN's Josina Anderson confirmed as much Monday, tweeting that Beckham would travel to Giants camp. There were no flight trackers to monitor his exact location, because Beckham is neither Santa Claus nor Brett Favre circa 2009.

WON'T: There won't be much else to see Odell-wise.

Beckham isn't medically cleared to fully participate in practice yet. Neither the Giants nor Beckham (in the final year of his rookie contract and eager to rewrite the NFL's salary structure) have much to gain from pushing things. Beckham has been a quiet participant in some voluntary OTAs, so don't expect ridiculous contract demands or drama. We all love a little overheated OBJ controversy, but Beckham is a safe bet to spend much of this week doing little more than jogging around on the far practice field and standing next to coaches with a helmet under his arm.

Aaron M. Sprecher/Associated Press

WILL: Earl Thomas will hold out.

He said so himself on social media Sunday.

WON'T: There won't be much clarity about what the Seahawks are thinking.

The Seahawks should have seen Thomas' discontent coming as soon as they released Richard Sherman and gutted the roster of other defensive veterans. They could have extended his contract then if they believed he was essential to the team's mini-rebuild/culture change, or they should have accepted any reasonable trade offers if Thomas is just one more veteran salary for them to purge. This half-measured approach is not only alienating Thomas but is also casting doubt on the coherence of their long-range plans. If the team's goal is a renewed spirit of competition (as Pete Carroll told Albert Breer of The MMQB), ticking off a Hall of Famer ain't the way to get it done.

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WILL: Le'Veon Bell will hold out.

Bell missed minicamp last year, using a groin injury and the fact he did not sign his franchise tender offer (and was therefore not under contract) as cover for the "mandatory" component of the event. With Bell again unhappy with the franchise tag, all signs point to another minicamp holdout, though Bell has not made any formal Thomas-like decrees.

WON'T: We won't have a Bell resolution any time soon.

The Steelers organization has a long history of closing ranks against holdouts and can usually count on both players and fans siding with the front office. Using last year as a guide: Bell will sign his tender and report for camp after the dog days and dreary early preseason games of August, shake off some rust in September and have another excellent season. Until then, Bell will hang out with Wiz Khalifa, and the Steelers will stick to a cap philosophy that has kept them the second-best team in the AFC for many years.

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WILL: Julio Jones will hold out.

Jones won't be participating in Falcons minicamp this week. What gave his holdout plans away? Was it hanging out at a Cam Newton charity event during OTAs? Or working out with the Picasso of passive-aggressive contract stunts, Terrell Owens, on the USC practice field? Jones told TMZ this spring: "Everybody wants a story right now. There's no story to be told." But he was a no-show when players reported on Monday, and the team issued a statement that it has had "productive and constructive" talks with Jones' agent about a new deal.

For being a constructive non-story about a disagreement, this sure looks like an actual disagreement.

WON'T: Teams won't keep doing these long contract extensions (eventually).

Jones has three years left on the contract extension he signed in 2015; he's in holdout mode not because the contract is about to lapse (as is the case for other holdouts on this list) but because receiver salaries are skyrocketing. Smart players, agents and general managers are eventually going to start avoiding these long-term deals that look good on paper but only lock players into salaries that will disappoint them if they perform well or make them expendable if they play poorly.

Do you hear that, Cowboys guard Zack Martin? You and the team will both regret that six-year contract extension in about two years. Don't sign it! Don't—oops, too late. Oh well, at least it's with the Cowboys, the team that's still paying for a star two years after he retired.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

WILL: There will be Aaron Donald drama.

Donald is expected to skip Rams minicamp; last year, he attended the mandatory session after skipping the rest of OTAs. Don't expect an eleventh-hour settlement this week for the chronically underpaid defensive tackle, who is in the final season of a rookie contract that feels like it has dragged on forever. The Rams barely have enough cap space to keep the locker room fridge stocked this year, so the structuring of a Donald deal will require the kind of finesse that usually drags into the summer.

WON'T: There won't be a real Donald problem.

The Rams have more cap flexibility in future years and can (and should) make Donald the NFL's highest-paid defender before the start of training camp. By August, Donald and Ndamukong Suh will be side by side, anchoring the Rams' zillion-dollar defense.

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

WILL: Rookie quarterbacks will be the subjects of many reviews.

Or "revues." Or "reviews of the revues." It doesn't matter. Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen and Lamar Jackson (as well as less-ballyhooed rookies) will throw in individual, seven-on-seven and full-squad drills, and every pass will be duly reported and analyzed. Most of the rookies will at least get cameos with the starters, unless the head coach is trying to make some sort of philosophical statement (hello, Hue Jackson!). If you love to glean insight from completion percentages tabulated during passing drills in shorts and shells, this week is your Super Bowl.

WON'T: There won't be anything meaningful in those reviews.

Sideline observers don't really know what's going on during practice sessions. Long-bomb completions and wobblers that bounce off nearby shrubs are easy enough to evaluate, but any given set of seven-on-sevens could be a two-minute drill, a third downs-only drill, a drill in which the defense is handed the ideal play to stop the offense (or vice versa) or a dozen other variations. So don't take any rookie quarterback evaluations too seriously, unless they complete lots of long bombs or bounce passes off the shrubbery (or sideline observers).

WILL: Rookies will "turn heads."

"Turn heads" is football writers' favorite offseason cliche; it's our answer to baseball's "best shape of his life." For a rookie to "turn heads" in minicamp, he must:

• Make one or two flashy plays, like a one-handed catch or seven-on-seven interception against the fourth-string quarterback.

• Get mentioned by a coach, who usually gets asked a direct question about the rookie after the one-handed catch or interception.

• Make a vaguely positive impression on reporters when asked about the one-handed catch or interception.

• Not get injured or be noticeably terrible from that point forward.

By the start of training camp, those one or two flash plays will become the stuff of fan message board legend, transforming the rookie (or practice-squader or other unknown) into the second coming of Jerry Rice or Troy Polamalu.

WON'T: Rookies who "turns heads" won't become Rice or Polamalu.

Some undrafted rookies and no-names blossom into stars, of course. But the intersection between unknowns who "turn heads" in minicamp and guys who turn out to be Malcolm Butler or Adam Thielen is relatively small. Chances are, this week's superstars will be September's waiver claims, practice squad additions or special teams gunners. But enjoy the one-handed catches while they are here, because it's nothing but baseball for the next month.

Mark Brown/Getty Images

WILL: Jon Gruden press conferences will be wild 'n' woolly.

The coach will have much to talk about, from Khalil Mack's impending holdout to the scads of big-name veterans on the roster to his ongoing love-hate relationship with anything that has happened to the NFL since 2008. Coach, what are your thoughts on Jordy Nelson? Marshawn Lynch? Doug Martin? The RPO? Christian Hackenberg? The Golden State Warriors? What about Derek Ca...oops, we are already out of time.

WON'T: Gruden and the Raiders won't punish Mack.

Gruden will talk a blustery game, but any fines Mack receives for missing this week will be waived when he signs his extension, which will happen either just before of just after Donald signs his extension. It's not impossible to picture the Rams without Donald, but the Raiders won't be allowed into Las Vegas without Mack.

Steven Senne/Associated Press

WON'T: There won't be any fresh Patriots news.

Their minicamp was last week, folks. You probably missed it because all the real Patriots action was on the gossip vine.

WILL: There will be fresh Patriots speculation.

Every Patriots rumorquake is followed by multiple aftershocks. Rob Gronkowski already decried last week's trade rumors as "fake news" (someday, people who use that phrase will figure out that we all think it means the exact opposite of what they think it means). The Patriots and Team Brady can each be relied upon to quietly disseminate among loyalists multiple inside reports of what is "really" happening among Gronk, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, fitness celebrity Alex Guerrero and the other characters in this epic saga.

Don't believe the most sensational of the Chicken Little rumormongering, but also beware of any team that is rapidly becoming twice as interesting off the field as on it.

Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeTanier.