It’s OK to be excited about NFL rookie minicamps

Rookie minicamps are off and running across the NFL.

We are squarely in the month of May and with the NFL Draft now officially behind us, rookie minicamps are off and running.

This time of year gives us our first look at players in their new team uniforms and also lets us know which jersey numbers certain players are going to be wearing. Don’t ask Abdul Carter to make a decision there though since that is apparently a complicated thing.

With so much happening across the world of sport at this part of the calendar, rookie minicamps can sometimes fall through the cracks. Here at The Skinny Post we, Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa, don’t let that happen.

Let’s begin.

On a scale of 1-10 how excited are you by rookie minicamps?

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RJ:

If I am being honest, my excitement level for anything NFL is generally a 10 out of 10. I’ll say that this is somewhere around a 6-7 though just to keep things relatively fair.

It’s fun! I like seeing the players make the rounds for the first time. When it comes to evaluating and analyzing the draft we obviously know a lot about different dudes, but for some reason things hit a little different when we begin to understand which puzzle they are suddenly a piece of as opposed to sitting in some level of ambiguity.

Obviously the “highlights” or videos that come out from these types of things don’t mean much, but this is my parade and I will not let anyone rain on it.

Michael:

I am one of those people that will take any new bit of football content with a massive smile. Why not be excited about minicamps? It’s a long slog until the training camp arrives and these short events for the teams to get together with their newest players are a nice amuse bouche to get us by.

And yes, I totally agree with the idea that highlights and big-time plays from these short bouts of practice aren’t something to hold a ton of weight in, but I’ll be damned if I still won’t be excited to hear about them!

At some point we will hear about Giants rookie Abdul Carter being unblockable. Travis Hunter will make a leaping, one-handed interception before doing the exact same thing on offense. Maybe we’ll hear about Cowboys rookie guard Tyler Booker moving Heaven and Earth for the Dallas running backs?

Bring it all on!

Who should have the most say when it comes to retired numbers?

Michael:

There’s been a lot of discourse surrounding retired numbers in the NFL over the past week, mainly stemming from Giants rookie Abdul Carter’s search for a number that he believes fits him best. He has already asked franchise legend Lawrence Taylor if he could wear No. 56 but Taylor politely declined and told him to blaze his own trail.

After that, former Giants quarterback Phil Simms publicly stated he wouldn’t care if either Carter or rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart wanted to wear his retired No. 11, the number Carter wore at Penn State. However, Simms’ own family voted against the idea and it looks like No. 11 will stay retired.

All of this has got me thinking about who ultimately should have the final say in the matter. As it stands, the franchise does actually get the final yes or no. However, it was the player and all their effort they gave to the franchise that helped them earn the right to have their number retired. I can’t help but think that decision should begin and end with the owner of that number and I certainly don’t think their family should have a sliver of a say, to be honest.

Am I crazy for thinking that?

RJ:

Ultimately I think this is the case with numbers that were officially retired by a team. Letting that person choose makes sense.

To use my team as an example, the Dallas Cowboys have never officially retired any number. They have certain legacy ones that they do not ever hand out (8, 12 and 22 are the main ones), but they consider it a bit of a positive challenge to give someone say 88 (which has worked out well) or 94 (not so much).

If the team goes about things like this then I think that it is okay. But the Giants allowed for the people in question to have opinions the moment they officially retired them.

Those are the rules.

Which one team do you think owns the other right now?

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RJ:

On Sunday night the NBA saw the Golden State Warriors eliminate the Houston Rockets from the playoffs again. I believe this is the 70th time that this has happened in the last decade.

The overall point here is that the Warriors have collectively owned the Rockets for the last 10 years. It is never fun when one team completely owns you, but sometimes that happens in sports.

In terms of the NFL I am going to keep things relative to my team and note that the Green Bay Packers own the Dallas Cowboys (I could have said the San Francisco 49ers do to be clear, but I am going with the Packers). Green Bay took Dallas out in 2014 (Dez caught it), 2016 (Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott’s rookie year) and most recently in 2023 when they blew their doors off so badly that it rippled all through last season. Oh, and did I mention that the coach who the Cowboys hired in between all of that to fix it all was the former Packers head coach in Mike McCarthy?

It sucks.

Michael:

Oh gosh, this one hurts because I can’t help but think about my Milwaukee Bucks being eliminated once again by the Indiana Pacers. Somehow in the last few seasons, the Pacers and Bucks have created one of the NBA’s newest rivalries. These teams are always heated against each other — whether it’s the regular or postseason — and the games are normally full of drama. Take the elimination game, for instance. Tyrese Haliburton got a game-winning layup with seconds left after the Bucks blew a seven-point lead with under a minute left. After the game Haliburton’s father got into Giannis Antetokounmpo’s face which caused him to earn an indefinite ban from all future Pacers games.

That’s the type of old-school drama we miss in the NBA!

Oh wait, this was a football question?

Well, how can we not look at the AFC West that has been collectively owned by the Kansas City Chiefs for the better part of the past 10 years. My Chargers are lucky to ever split a season series with KC and the same goes for the rest of the division. When every new season arrives, I’m asked on various radio shows about how I see the division shaking out this year and I always have the same answer: It’s the Chiefs’ division until someone outright takes it from them.

Who is one remaining free agent you cannot believe hasn’t signed with a team yet?

Michael:

There are two very good offensive guards left on the market in Brandon Scherff and Will Hernandez. In a league where teams could always upgrade their offensive line, it feels weird seeing these two still out there.

Now of course I’d be remiss not to note that Scherff is old and Hernandez is coming off a season-ending injury, but both were guys I did not expect to last long once the new league year began in early March.

In a league where veteran wideouts, running backs, and edge rushers seem to take their time finding the right “fit” in free agency, the lineman are usually just happy to find a home where they can get back to doing the dirty work for a franchise. I don’t know how much longer both of them will remain on the market, but I would be wildly surprised to see either of them without a starting job by the time the regular season rolls around.

RJ:

I’m going to keep things simple and go with Keenan Allen.

I recognize that last season in Chicago did not go well, but we have given just about everybody that was associated with that a pass of sorts. You cannot tell me that Allen cannot help an NFL team.

Adding veteran receivers is never a bad thing when they have the body of work that Keenan has had for his career to date.

Someone go get him.