Players for 26 NFL teams reported on Monday for the start of offseason programs. Not all players reported, but they don’t have to. Attendance at the Phase 1 portion of the NFL’s offseason is voluntary.

Among the absent players was New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. The former Alabama All-American had said he wouldn’t report if the team hadn’t signed him to a contract extension.

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Running back Josh Jacobs, the 2022 NFL rushing leader, wasn’t with his Las Vegas Raiders teammates on Monday. The former Crimson Tide ball-carrier hasn’t signed the franchise-tag tender the Raiders placed on him in March.

In New England, another Alabama alumnus didn’t report for the first day of the Patriots’ offseason work, but for a deeper reason than money.

Linebacker Anfernee Jennings delayed his arrival in Foxborough, Massachusetts, to support his hometown of Dadeville, Mike Reiss of ESPN reported.

On Saturday night, four people were killed and 32 were injured in a shooting at a birthday party in the small Alabama town. The dead included Philstavious Dowdell, a Dadeville High School football wide receiver who had committed to Jacksonville State.

Jennings was a two-time All-State selection at Dadeville after earning honorable-mention selection on the Alabama Sports Writers Association team during his sophomore season.

As a defensive end for the Tigers, Jennings won the ASWA Class 4A Lineman of the Year Award in 2014, his senior campaign for the Tigers. He also played in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic and the Semper Fidelis All-American Game.

Each season of Jennings’ high school career ended with a loss in the playoffs to UMS-Wright.

After recording 14.5 sacks and 33.5 tackles for loss at Alabama, Jennings entered the NFL as a third-round selection in the 2000 NFL Draft.

Jennings played in 16 games, with three starts, in 2022 for the Patriots in a comeback campaign after he spent the 2021 season on injured reserve.

Williams is scheduled to play the 2023 season for $9.594 million after the Jets picked up their option for a fifth season on his rookie contract during the offseason last year.

But Williams is hoping to replace that arrangement with a long-term contract extension with New York, and he said the day after the Jets’ final regular-season game that he didn’t plan to report for the team’s offseason program without it.

Williams’ brother, linebacker Quincy Williams, did report on Monday to the Jets’ offseason program. A former teammate of his brother’s at Wenonah High School, Williams signed a three-year, $18 million contract extension with New York in March that kept him from entering free agency.

The Raiders used their franchise tag on Jacobs on March 7, a week before the running back would have become an unrestricted free agent. Unlike the Jets with Quinnen Williams, Las Vegas declined to pick up its fifth-year option on Jacobs’ contract last year.

The tag obligates the Raiders to paying Jacobs $10.091 million for the 2023 season. The franchise-tag value for running backs is the lowest for any non-specialist position, and Jacobs wasn’t happy about getting the designation.

If Jacobs and the Raiders don’t have a contract extension in place by July 17, he will have to play the 2023 season on the one-year franchise-tag deal.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.