OTAs begin today. This is where the team, for the most part, gets together and creates the initial blueprint for the 2010 season. In some cases, like last year, OTAs were used to evaluate key position changes. You might remember that the left tackle spot for 2009 was pretty much decided during the OTAs. Jim Caldwell did not wait for the end of training camp to decided on Charlie Johnson over Tony Ugoh. Supposedly, he made that decision during or immediately after OTAs (much to my annoyance last year... hehe).

I guess we've come a long way from years past where pretty much no one gave a crap about OTAs. They were viewed as little more than the team just getting together and lifting weights, or something along those lines. Now, we see posts providing updates from OTAs on the Steelers quarterback situation, Sam Bradford is playing with the Rams second unit, and we even have open threads celebrating the start of these activities.

Unbelievable.

I swear, people get more excited about football practices than they do the NBA playoffs.

Some of the positions that may or may not get decided upon during or after OTAs: Starting left tackle, starting guard spots, kick returner, punt returner, and second tight end (H-Back).