Kansas City Chiefs Mandatory Minicamp 2025: Injuries, contract disputes, and other things to watch for as practices begin Tuesday.

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Kansas City Chiefs News

The Kansas City Chiefs will conclude Phase III of the offseason program this week with a three-day mandatory minicamp beginning on Tuesday, June 17.

The upcoming practices aren’t all that different from what the team experienced over the last three weeks at Organized Team Activities (OTAs). Players still aren’t allowed to wear pads or hold full-contact practices. On-field workouts with individual and group components, including walkthroughs, are permitted. They’ll also have 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 team drills. There will be plenty of play installation elements during this three-day minicamp as the team looks to hammer home every little detail they possibly can before the team breaks for roughly a month ahead of training camp in St. Joseph, Missouri.

The one component differentiating these practices from OTAs is that players must attend practices for the first time during the offseason workout program. To this point, everything has been voluntary work.

Here’s a look at everything to keep an eye on as practice sessions begin on Tuesday:

Chiefs’ injuries to keep an eye on

The team had a few absences on Day 9 of OTAs, the last practice open to the media. The majority of those players are expected back at practice when things begin on Tuesday. The one to watch for is UDFA TE Tre Watson, who has been absent for injury-related reasons.

A few players were “limited” participants in that Day 9 OTAs practice last week, including DE Felix Anudike-Uzomah, TE Jake Briningstool, WR Hollywood Brown, OT Jaylon Moore, and TE Jared Wiley. Other players considered “limited” at various times during OTAs include LT Josh Simmons, RT Jawaan Taylor, and CB Kristian Fulton.

Kareem Hunt left practice early on Day 9 of OTAs with something minor, like a hangnail or jammed finger. He told reporters in media availability after practice that he was fine. At the same time, if the Chiefs want to act out of an abundance of caution, they certainly could, as they’ve got plenty of RB snaps to go around.

Potential Chiefs contract disputes

Trey Smith and Omarr Norman-Lott’s contract situations have been covered ad nauseam, but there’s at least one new development to consider. Smith was in attendance for the team’s media production day on Monday. The team featured him in this video, which they shared on their social channels.

Smith, of course, has signed his franchise tag. He’s under contract for the 2025 NFL season, so he might feel some obligation to his coaches and his teammates to show up. At the same time, should he attend mandatory minicamp, I wouldn’t be so sure he would participate in practices. The Chiefs will likely want to ramp his workload up after not participating in voluntary work at OTAs, but there’s also the injury element to consider. If he gets hurt in mandatory minicamp, they’re on the hook for his $23.4M franchise tag amount.

Outside of Smith and Norman-Lott, there aren’t many situations to monitor. Both George Karlaftis and Trent McDuffie have been in attendance at OTAs, suggesting they’re fine with their situations related to the fifth-year option in 2026.

That said, according to the latest CBA, players with unexcused absences from mandatory minicamp are subject to fines that cannot be waived by NFL clubs. They’ll be fined $17,462 for the first missed day of practice, $34,925 for the second, and $52,381 for the third missed day. That’s practically $105K in fines for missing three days of practice.

A slimmed-down Travis Kelce?

There have been reports of a slimmed-down Travis Kelce showing up to the earliest OTAs practice sessions and mandatory minicamp this offseason. But why exactly was he “overweight” in the first place? No, it’s not because of Taylor Swift’s homemade pop-tarts. There was some intentionality behind the change for Kelce last season, which was all abandoned after Hollywood Brown & Rashee Rice were injured.

According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Kelce has told people close to him that he has lost nearly 25 pounds this offseason.

Ultimately, Kelce wants to make the most of the 2025 NFL season after a down year from a statistical perspective in 2024.

With mandatory attendance at minicamp, we can glean more trends about the roster depth in Kansas City. In OTAs, things are a little bit all over the place because you might not have every single player available for every practice session. We’ll be able to get a better idea of the starters on the offensive and defensive lines, how the secondary looks in sub-packages, and the wide receiver and running back rotations on offense.

Will Josh Simmons be the starter at left tackle? Is Kingsley Suamataia leading in the left guard battle? Who will start opposite Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson at cornerback? Will second-round rookie DT Omarr Norman-Lott play next to Chris Jones early and often? We’ll likely begin to get some answers to those questions and more as things get underway on Tuesday.