Packers Calendar: Colt Lyerla's Expected Return

The rookie tight end is expected to return to Packers OTAs on Wednesday after missing the previous day's practice.

The Green Bay Packers only hold one day of practice open to the public per week during Organized Team Activities (OTAs), which they did on Tuesday, but that doesn't mean they're not practicing. They're back to work on Wednesday, and rookie tight end Colt Lyerla is expected back.

Lyerla missed Tuesday's session for unspecified reasons, although Packers head coach Mike McCarthy vouched for the undrafted rookie.

"We had a couple guys miss today," said McCarthy after Tuesday's practice. "Obviously these are voluntary practices. I'm fully aware where he is, and I expect him back tomorrow."

As a policy, the Packers don't discuss injuries and absences from practice during OTAs because they're voluntary as mandated by the NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement.

For all intents and purposes, however, these practices are only voluntary for a very small percentage of veteran players that have established themselves as professional football players.

No one can be disciplined or fined for missing practice, but for a player like Lyerla—who is presumed to be on a very short leash after dealing with several immaturity issues during his college career including an arrest for cocaine possession—OTAs are not really voluntary.

Lyerla couldn't simply skip practice for something as innocent as going to the beach or to a baseball game. He'd be cut in a heartbeat if that was the case.

Almost certainly, Lyerla had a excusable reason for not taking part in Tuesday's practice. 

Obviously the Packers and all NFL teams would be understanding if a player had to leave for a major life event such as the birth of a child or the death of a loved one.

Considering Lyerla's past, perhaps he was receiving counseling for battling his inner demons. Or maybe he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed injury.

All these suggestions are mere speculation, but whatever his reason, it's certain to be a forgivable one.

Lyerla will be back at work on Wednesday behind closed doors, continuing to work at his craft with the rest of his teammates.

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Comments (8)

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heyjoe4's picture

June 04, 2014 at 10:12 am

I'm not worried about Lyerla. In an interview last week with the JSOnline he talked about reaching a "bottom". That's encouraging news that he's realized he has to work to get back into the stream of life. Hopefully he has a strong support group and counseling and will be ok.

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Evan's picture

June 04, 2014 at 10:34 am

Too busy throwing puppies off a bridge, I have to imagine.

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Evan's picture

June 04, 2014 at 06:34 pm

I was kidding, people...

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BradHTX's picture

June 04, 2014 at 09:28 pm

Excuse us, but this is the comments section on CHTV. You want to kid, go post puppy pics with PPF on APC.

(Great post, BTW...)

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ottscay's picture

June 04, 2014 at 05:14 pm

His agent mentioned that they had known about this for weeks, so if I had to bet I'd say it has something to do with his legal issues (e.g. some sort of checking in he had to do with the court), which would be an understandable part of the process (remember that Jolly had legal scheduling issues last year too).

Regardless of the reason, if McCarthy says it should be OK as far as fans are concerned.

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Brian Carriveau's picture

June 04, 2014 at 05:27 pm

Can I ask where you saw this comment by his agent? I'm unfamiliar.

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ottscay's picture

June 04, 2014 at 06:01 pm

I was thinking of Rob Demovsky's comment here (number 10, Roll call, part II):

http://espn.go.com/blog/green-bay-packers/post/_/id/10180/seen-and-heard...

But apparently I misremembered, as it quotes his agent saying that the Packers knew about the absence in advance but it doesn't contain a time frame. I don't think this changes the gist of my prior comment, but I apologize for the mixup.

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Michael Castelaz's picture

June 05, 2014 at 07:33 pm

I think the thing with Lyerla is that he IS immature... he IS misguided. He probably lacked some of the structure we're accustomed to because of his upbringing.

I think that what Green Bay sees is that, in spite of the fact that he's not perfect, he's scared straight... he's had his wakeup call, and while he may still be a bit of a wildcard, he's shown them that he's now open to good influences. He wants to be a team guy.... he's willing to listen... he respects the guys in that locker room and will accept proven pros trying to HELP him. I think he was embarrassed to ask for help at Oregon... and the guys there were in the same boat as him?! They weren't older... they hadn't been around the block. With the vets and positive role models green bay has, I think he's got a good shot of proving he can really mature.

I think GB thinks he's starting to show that he's ready to follow some positive role models and take some of his veteran mentors seriously. That's a big part of being a pro. It's not all about him anymore.

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