One of the major NFL story lines throughout training camp and the 2011 preseason has been how teams are handling the post-lockout life. Specifically, how teams are handling the loss of offseason workouts and getting back to football.
Some teams went right back to it with full pads and hitting while others, like the Chiefs, took their time in order to, presumably, get the players back in football shape before the real hitting began.
Chiefs GM Scott Pioli went on Sirius XM Radio last week and noted that he and Todd Haley consulted with a number of people outside of the organization who had been in a similar situation, namely the 1987 strike.
"You go back to the 1987 when there was the strike and teams came back," Pioli said. "The first thing that a lot of people did was they went right to the grindstone. They went 100 miles an hour, things were going fast and a lot of players got hurt. We went back and talked to some people and got some thoughts and some advice that how this might be...to try not to make some of the mistakes that other people have made in the past."
Pioli noted that the Chiefs were "very fortunate" last year to be relatively healthy throughout the year, and he's absolutely right. When we say the Chiefs had a lot of things go their way last season, that's one of the things we're talking about.
Let's hope they got some good advice and their strategy works in preparing them for the season. The only major injury of note to this point is LB Brandon Siler, who is out for the year.