It looks like Bryant McKinnie’s decision to skip the first few days of Ravens camp is going to have an impact on his wallet.
Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Ravens have already fined the absent left tackle $30,000 for failing to report on Wednesday’s check-in day. McKinnie has missed Thursday and Friday’s practices as well, for reasons the Ravens have left vaguely defined as “personal reasons.” If Cole’s report is accurate, those reasons were not compelling enough for the Ravens to excuse McKinnie from work.
McKinnie promised to “shut everybody up” when he arrived at training camp at his target weight of 345 pounds, but his absence is doing exactly the opposite. Everyone’s wondering if he added weight after minicamp, something that would have landed him in hot water with the Ravens, or if dealing with lawsuits stemming from a loan during the lockout is the reason he isn’t in camp. Either way, there’s a lot of discussion about when the Ravens will decide to cut their losses (a $500,000 roster bonus) and drop McKinnie from the team if he continues to stay away from camp.
The team has already started preparing for life without McKinnie. Michael Oher is at left tackle and the team’s Twitter account said rookie Kelechi Osemele will “likely step in” at right tackle with McKinnie absent. Unless he shows up in shape in the next couple of days, it’s not too great a stretch to suggest we’ve seen the last of McKinnie in a Ravens uniform.