Observations From The Kansas City Chiefs' Monday Afternoon Practice

From the FanPosts. Keep these well-written practice reports coming. We can't front page every one but they are most definitely read by lots of people. Thanks. -Chris

To follow up on my post about this morning's walk-through practice, I thought I would share some observations about the Kansas City Chief afternoon practice. For about half of practice, everyone had pads on. About half way through, they all (except the QB's) went to the middle of the field and took their shoulder pads off. 

Tony Moeaki participated in opening warmups but spent most of the afternoon's practice in the rehab area - a lot of time on the bike. 

More after the jump:

At the start of practice when they players run the shorter distance of the field to warm up, Jonathan Baldwin was the first one to finish the run each time. Not that it's a race or anything, but it does show that he's getting after it. 

After warmups, Jim Zorn worked with the quarterbacks on a drill that seemed to be based on avoiding a would-be-sack. The QB's repeatedly went through this drill where they would take the snap, drop back a few steps, and then Zorn would say "now" and they would go through a motion with their arm to avoid the imaginary pressure and then step to the side and throw. In the next drill, they practiced scrambling and throwing after the scramble. Hopefully the QB's will keep an even cooler head in the pocket thanks to Zorn being around. This is pure speculation, but I bet Tyler Palko appreciates having a left-handed quarterback coach. 

The offensive line, defensive line, and OLB's participated in the drill that Joel and others have described in the past few days where one d-linemen or OLB goes against multiple o-linemen. Today, it was one-on-four. Todd Haley told the group before that segment started that it needed to be productive, but said "if anything gets out of hand it's over." There were usually four O-linemen, and whoever was playing on defense would line, linemen or OLB, up at their usual position and then battled against the offense which usually came down to a one-on-one struggle before it broke. Most of the fans were interested in this segment, and a lot of the coaches were as well. There were other drills going on throughout the fields on offense and defense, but Scott Pioli, Todd Haley, Bill Muir, Gary Gibbs, Romeo Crennel, and others were all focused on this drill. Allen Bailey seemed (not that I can evaluate like a coach) to do well in this drill. Toward the end, he got a strong push on the o-linemen and Todd Haley said "do that again with the same group, please." So they lined up again and Bailey again seemed to do well. 

During the QB's target practice, there were aiming for a barrel and the fans reacted when Jim Zorn hit it. Zorn's accuracy was mixed through the day as he did hit that target but sometimes when throwing a ball back to a QB during a drill they would not be able to catch it because it was a few feet away. Zorn would laugh those off. 

Later, the offense lined up without the defense and worked on running passing routes. The wide receivers and running backs were all involved in this. Haley got on to Veran Tucker after he dropped a pass in this drill. Haley spent some time talking to Charles in McCluster about what looked to be like fundamentals when leaving the line of scrimmage and going out for a passing play. It involved a lot of Haley running in place to demonstrate what he was explaining. Thomas Jones looked good while running passing routes - seemed very sharp for his build. 

During the special teams segment, Haley shouted "Mayday" and they practiced getting into field goal formation quickly. Succup was 3/3. While the special teams group worked on punting, Cory Greenwood was very vocal and was shouting things out according to how the defense lined up. 

When the offense and defense lined up in 11-on-11 drills, Todd Haley's main focus seemed to be on awareness. He would say "show me we're learning" and "it's not gonna get any easier than this." Cassel was on target with most of his passes, making some nice throws to Dwayne Bowe and Jonathan Baldwin. Baldwin had a nice catch and went to the ground after securing the ball. The play got some cheers from the stands, and Todd Haley told him from across the field that if he gets in shape he won't have to fall to make that catch. I paraphrased that comment for the coach. 

Haley also blew the whistle before the ball had been snapped and quizzed Demond Washington (not Donald) about the down and distance. Washington was quick to respond with the correct answer of 3rd and 9. 

McCluster seemed to practice with running backs through all of the practice, but did line up as a wide receiver once or twice in 11-on-11 drills. 

Kendrick Lewis intercepted a Ricky Stanzi pass. Haley told Stanzi a couple times that he needed to get rid of the ball faster. 

Maurice Carthon called one of the players an idiot. At least I'm pretty sure it was  him- toward the end of practice he didn't have his trademark gatorade towel hanging from his shorts so it was more difficult to tell. He and WR coach Richie Anderson can look very similar from the stands. 

Bill Muir pulled Chris Harr from the offensive line after two consecutive penalties. He shouted "get me a new left guard." On the first of those penalties, Eric Berry threw his towel in the air to signify a flag. 

One pass bounced of the hands of either Jeremy Horner or Terrance Copper and looked like it was going to be picked off. It ended up being caught by WR Chandler Williams.