Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp Practice: What I Saw Yesterday

From the FanPosts. Excellent recap of day one. -Joel

My wife and I had a great time at the Kansas City Chiefs training camp last year at St. Joe. It was amazing how much even an amateur could pick up just by watching practice. We planned then to go this year as much as possible. The first practice seemed to us like a "must see" even though not all the players  were going to be to be there. Once again there were some things that jumped out.

Here's what I noticed.

-Matt Cassel was so happy to be back to work he was skipping (literally skipping) during the final team portion of the practice. I could truly relate.

-It was easy to tell which of the Kansas City Chiefs UFAs were not going to be re-signed. There were new faces wearing their numbers.

-Most of the team looked to be in fanatastic shape. In particular, Matt Cassel and Andy Studebaker made the running portion at the end of practice look especially easy. The team ran a weave around the numbers with the offense and defense starting at opposite ends and on opposite sides. When they reached the end, they switched sides so there was a "running laps" effect with a little rest for them while they walked from one set of numbers to the other and waited for their teammates to get a sufficient lead. Ninety-five percent of the team looked to be completely ready for it.

-Two veteran notables who looked like they were having some trouble were Branden Albert and Dion Gales. Gales, in fact, dropped all the way back to the end of the line and was the last to finish.

-The only player he was even close to was Jerrell Powe. Powe was also obviously unprepared for the rigor of his first NFL training camp. He was holding his side and lumbering like he was on his last legs. He also got his first spanking from Haley. He fell during the final team portion of practice and Haley made him run and touch the "P" on the "Welcome to Chiefs Training Camp" banner hanging on the grandstand. He had to run "catty cornered" across the length of the field and across the second practice field to get there. It was probably about 150 yards he had to run.

-Haley yelled "hustle Powe" once. Powe also tried to short-stop it but Haley was watching. Haley yelled "All the way to the 'P' Jerrell". Powe stood there for a second looking confused then figured it out and finished his run. My excitement about Powe contributing right away at NT has definitely tempered. At the opposite end was Tyson Jackson. Jackson looks like he has dropped fifteen to twenty pound and ran very, very well during the weave segment.

-Along the same lines, only Tony Moeaki and Tervaris Johnson were in Haley's "Camp Pendleton". Neither looked like they will be there long. Both seemed to take a couple of full speed sprints mixed into their conditioning work along the sidelines and ran with the team during the conditioning portions of the practice with absolutely no noticeable problems. Andy Studebaker once again led the whole team back and forth across the field during that portion of practice. Studebaker was also first in line during the combined defensive drills and led the linebackers during position drills. I am guessing he will be very hard for anyone to dislodge from Vrable's vacant starting position.

-Did I say TJ looked awseome? Can he do a Dorsey?

-I know it is early and some of these are bound to change but here was who was running with the "first team" at unsigned and positions of obvious change.

On defense, Pierre Walters was standing in for Tamba Hali with Studebaker opposite. Anthony Torribio was at NT and everybody was playing Brandon Carr's CB spot. There was just a constant rotation there with Javier Arenas leading the way. As Josh Looney, tweeted, Asamoah does not look to be Brian Water's replacement at LG. Rather, Ryan Lilja was there with Asamoah taking over at RG. With Richardson still unsigned, Bobby Greenwood was at RT. This caught me a bit off guard but Darryl Harris was at Center. Jeremy Urban took the first few snaps with the "ones" but split roughly equal time with Baldwin and a number of others. With the Breaston signing, there is a log jam at wide receiver but Urban seems to still be someone with Haley's nod of approval. Jake O'Connell and Cody Slate roughtly spleit the TE work.

-Dexter McCluster spent the entire practice working with the running backs and not the wide receivers.

-Shane Bannon does not look like 265 pounds: until he is standing with the other running backs. Then it is like "Wow, that guy is huge!"

-WR Jonathan Baldwin is noticeably bigger than WR Dwayne Bowe.

-I read some of K-Man's comments in a thread that OT David Mims may step in for Richardson. I doubt that is happening unless he makes a ridiculous amount of progress before the start of the season. He looked more than a little lost out there. Bobby Greenwood, however, looked as if he was making some progress.

-One of my goals is to get a ball signed by all four starters in the Chiefs' secondary. I've got three autographs on it already. I mentioned my plan one of the three (I won't say who it was just in case) and said "All I need is Brandon Carr". He said, "Brandon can't be here until August 4th." I asked, "Will he be here?" The player smiled and said,"Oh yeah, he'll be here." 

-S Eric Berry and QB Matt Cassel were once again the last two to leave the autograph signing session. Berry had to be "encouraged" to leave a couple of times by a staff member.

-GM Scott Pioli was taking calls constantly during practice and shortly after five o'clock got one he was not happy about. He slammed his ball cap down and leaned against the cushion on the bottom of one of the camera scissor lifts with his face in his hands while he continued the phone conversation. I wonder who got away.

-Quote of the day: From Todd Haley after WR Verran Tucker fell (following Powe) and was sent to touch the "P": "Stay off the ground, fellas. This is a walkthrough. If we can't practice the right way, we don't have a chance."

-By the way, Tyson Jackson looks terrific.