Different year same story. We annually discuss who is or isn't showing up to voluntary workouts and why they should/we shouldn't care, and 2008 will be no different. The results are mixed on missing voluntary workouts. Sean Taylor had, in the past, skipped voluntary workouts instead opting for Miami as his preparation destination. And he turned out to be just fine as a result. Shawn Springs has done the same though I question what impact that has had on his body, since he is kind of a perennial injury concern.
Traditionalists who think players have a responsibility to show up for voluntary workouts aren't going to like this. I don't especially like this, either, as I have traditionalist leanings that inform me players should be with their teammates to show solidarity if nothing else. But this team ran a lot of "voluntary" sessions in 2006 that weren't so voluntary. At least one of our better players, and I believe others, were not fond of that policy. Whatever I thought of it, I hated the results: 2006 was a disaster. Just around two months after Clinton Portis complained publicly of the '06 policy, which tends to suggest acquiescence (to the players or the results I won't speculate), Joe Gibbs said peace out and told players they could practice elsewhere prior to the 2007 season. If there is a relationship to be drawn from having players workout voluntarily at Redskins Park it probably isn't the one people who think the team should workout together want, at least as applied to the past two years. 2007>2006.
I'm not saying that voluntary team workouts should be avoided. I'm just saying that I'm approaching ambivalence on the issue; it isn't clear to me that it helps, it might be the case that it hurts. So I don't view recent events with much apprehension. Per Redskins Insider:
"There's just a handful" of players not participating, Zorn said. "And really, it's just those guys who, in the past, kind of had their own program."
The main concern is that players are out and about up to no good, because offseason is typically where arrests happen. Hopefully that is a non-concern, mitigated in large part because:
"There's a constant communication effort to try to make sure we know what those guys are doing and they know what we're doing," he said. "And then as they come in, it's should be kind of business as usual."