Last year around this time the big to-do was the Chiefs conditioning program. Todd Haley's first-year as the head honcho brought an emphasis on staying in shape -- particularly when players weren't working out at the team complex.
The rookies will be here this weekend and, by NCAA rule, won't be back until May 16th. That means, according to the Chiefs coach, they'll be 27 workouts behind the veterans by that time.
"It was pretty obvious today during practice that they’re well behind (in terms of the conditioning program)," Haley said.
All these players have been (hopefully) staying in shape leading up to the draft because they were taking pre-draft visits hoping to impress a team enough to draft them. Haley said the Chiefs coaches tried to warn the players on the pre-draft visits that all the pre-draft travel won't make it easy to step right into a minicamp.
"They’re behind, and if you’re not doing football-related things, if you’re just sitting at Lifetime (Fitness), running on a treadmill, watching TV in an air-conditioned situation, no matter what you’re doing, it’s not going to be the same thing," he said.
So this is their first introduction to Body By Haley. Should be interesting.
The next opportunity for the Chiefs rookies to demonstrate their improvement comes May 17th-19th.