The voluntary portion of the offseason practice schedule has come to an end for the teams holding veteran minicamps this week and that means that a lot of absences from workouts are coming to an end as well.
Chargers safety Eric Weddle and Bears tight end Martellus Bennett are getting back to work with their teams and defensive end Chris Clemons is doing the same in Jacksonville. According to multiple reports, Clemons has reported to the team ahead of Tuesday’s start to the three-day minicamp.
It’s the second straight year that Clemons has opted out of the voluntary phase of the workout program and the Jaguars were aware that he’d be away from the team. Coach Gus Bradley said that he was confident Clemons would show up in good shape, although he added that he wouldn’t say it was “OK” for the veteran to be absent during sessions that he wasn’t obligated to attend.
With Dante Fowler out for the year, there probably won’t be any bad feelings aired now that Clemons is back in the fold because the Jags are going to need him to help spearhead their pass rush this season. Clemons’s eight sacks ranked him second behind Sen’Derrick Marks for the Jaguars last season and he has 66 sacks over 10 years in the NFL.