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Ted S. Warren/Associated Press

While the casual NFL fan might not pay a ton of attention to training camp season, it is one of the most important times of the football year. I can tell you as a former player that the foundations laid during training camp and in the preseason have a monumental impact on the rest of the season.

Therefore, when I went to put together a list of things to watch during training camp, I looked for storylines that could dramatically impact the NFL landscape. I didn't want to be that guy who looked around the league and said, "Ooh, I wonder how DeSean Jackson, Mike Evans and O.J. Howard are going to do together for the Buccaneers."

Those guys are going to be great. There you go, and you're welcome.

I'm not going to focus on the quarterbacks returning from injuries—Marcus Mariota, Ryan Tannehill, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck and Derek Carr—or every high draft pick from the past couple of years, either. Sure, those guys are all worth watching, but that's not all that interesting to me. If Luck can't play, the Colts are going to suffer. If Jared Goff can't pick up the offense under Sean McVay, the Rams are going to suffer. That's all you need to know.

Instead, I wanted to dig a little deeper to examine the camp storylines that interest me as a football guy. These are players and situations worth watching that could make or break teams in 2017 and, by extension, impact the league as a whole.