KC Chiefs training camp 2013: Day 2 practice report

A cold practice

I was legitimately cold this morning at practice. Cold! It's July!

RT @NWSKansasCity: Looks like Kansas City TIED the record low this morning of 55 degrees. The previous record was set in 1994. #mowx #kswx

— Kris Ketz (@KrisKetz) July 27, 2013

The low of 51 in St. Joseph fell 4 degrees short of the previous record of 47 set back in 1971. Still pretty chilly however!

— NWS Kansas City (@NWSKansasCity) July 27, 2013

Sam Mellinger was making fun of me for whining about the cold. Related: I'm taking insult requests for Sam in the comments.

Jeff Allen apparently injured

I did not see what happened with him. A player was being carted off the field and up to the Chiefs facilities at the top of the hill by the fields. I saw a white shirt and defensive players wear white shirts so I thought it was a defensive player. But then we noticed that Jeff Allen was no longer working with the offensive line unit and by process of elimination we figured out that the player being carted off was actually him.

No word on what happened. I didn't hear anything from the players afterward.

Geoff Schwartz replaced him in the lineup. Those two are in a position battle so an injury to Allen, even a minor one, could be significant in the context of the position battle.

We'll update you on Allen once we know more. Arrowhead Pride readers at camp today had more observations on Allen, which you can read in the comments here.

The first team offensive line was the same, with Schwartz filling in for Allen: LT Branden Albert, LG Geoff Schwartz, C Rodney Hudson, RG Jon Asamoah, RT Eric Fisher.

Sean Smith goes down, but he's fine

Whew!

The situation:

Alex Smith at quarterback. Sean Smith lined up on the left covering Jon Baldwin. Alex drops back and goes deep to Baldwin, who is sprinting down the field. The ball is on the inside instead of the outside, giving Smith a shot at what should have been an interception. But Smith appeared to take the ball in and then fell on it, with the ball popping out.

Smith stayed down. I couldn't tell what he hurt but the trainers came out and checked on him. He was down for maybe a minute before walking to the sidelines. A couple minutes after that he ran back across the field to the rest of the defensive backs and resumed drills. So he's fine.

In fact, just a couple of plays later, there was a good example of why the Chiefs brought him in. Covering the right side of the field, Smith batted down a pass that probably would've gone over the head of the 5'9 Brandon Flowers.

D-Bowe's absence changes things up

Dwayne Bowe was out again on Saturday. He was off to the side working with the other players who are not practicing. With Bowe out, Devon Wylie saw some time on the outside opposite Jon Baldwin. Interesting that it was Wylie on this day and Donnie Avery, who lined up with the second team. It's possible that with Baldwin and Avery competing, they just wanted Avery to learn one position, which would keep him on the second team.

Wylie had a little bit of a rough go at it on Saturday but playing on the outside and lining up against Sean Smith doesn't seem like his game. He's better in the middle of the field.

Here's everything we know about D-Bowe absence right here.

Also, this is what it looks like when D-Bowe runs away from you:

Dexter is the fan favorite

Everyone loves Dexter McCluster. There are a lot of intermediate passes in the West Coast Offense, some drags and things like that, which seems to fit McCluster well. I swear every time he catches the ball, the crowd cheers. He's maybe the most recognizable Chief with his dreads -- and everyone loves the little guy -- so I know why the fans are cheering.

The tight ends

They're all getting a lot of reps. This isn't going to be a position battle that's easy to figure out.

I'm excited about the two tight end formations because Alex Smith has had success in that before. The Chiefs have the personnel to run that all the time and not be at a disadvantage.

Travis Kelce is really athletic. You'll see him in traffic all the time. He did have one easy drop near the flat on the right side of the field.

Demetrius Harris has stood out at times even though he's not on the first team. For someone who hasn't played football full time in years, he is capable of catching the ball in traffic. That's not easy to do.

With Tony Moeaki and Anthony Fasano in that group, good luck figuring out who comes out on top.

Here's Kelce talking to Mitch Holthus:

Knile Davis drops

That was the knock on Davis during the offseason and maybe it's because I've been looking for it but I did notice a couple more drops on Saturday.

The first one came in a drill with the quarterbacks passing to the running backs. The second one came in team work, with Chase Daniel's pass to the flat just a little low but still catchable. Davis dropped it.

We'll continue to monitor this but once you get tagged with the label of someone who drops passes or fumbles, it's hard to get rid of it.

Return men

Among those getting reps at returner were Quintin Demps, Dexter McCluster, Devon Wylie and Rico Richardson.

Knile Davis was out there yesterday but he muffed a punt, which was perhaps the reason Andy Reid said after yesterday's practice that they needed to get better at catching those returns.

The leaders through two days? My guess would be DMC and Wylie.

Seven defensive backs at the same time?

(Jokes!)

Neat defensive formation by the Chiefs that had seven defensive backs on the field. Maybe it was just the dime and Eric Berry was a linebacker but it was an odd sight.

DBs on the field at once: Brandon Flowers, Sean Smith, Dunta Robinson, Eric Berry, Kendrick Lewis, Husain Abdullah and Quintin Demps. One down lineman -- Dontari Poe -- and three linebackers, including Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali and Justin Houston.

Tyler Bray taking snaps ahead of Ricky Stanzi

We're only two days in, and they're sharing third-string duties, but an update on the third quarterback battle.

The first and second team -- Alex and Chase -- were consistent in their reps. When it came to third team, Bray was consistently taking snaps ahead of Stanzi on Saturday. Maybe they'll rotate this camp. We'll see. But the feeling among the media is that Bray will win out.

John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

More observations

• Alex Smith had a beautiful pass to Tony Moeaki over the middle. Moeaki lined up at tight end and basically ran straight on the snap. Alex floated the ball just over the defender's head and it landed beautifully in Moeaki's hands. (Update: Or was it Chase throwing? Controversy!)
• There was music during the scrimmage. Some sort of hip-hop song that everyone in the media seemed to know except me. Sorry, I don't know anything about music. I'm going to be horrible on the music beat during camp.
• Great pass break-up by Eric Berry. Alex fired a bullet at Devon Wylie on a quick slant but Berry dove to break it up. So good.
• I saw Akeem Jordan, the inside linebacker, blitzing a couple times. Obviously there's no tackling (especially not the quarterback) but Jordan would have sacked Alex on one play.
• Chase Daniel threw one short pass that was deflected by somebody. Chase was holding his hand after the play, like he caught it on someone's helmet. Oh man ... jamming a finger on a helmet like that sounds so painful.
• Eric Kush had a bad snap to Chase Daniel, who fumbled it. It went far enough back that it could have reasonably been six if a defender picked it up.

Practice tweets?

Or someone running Jerrell Powe's account. This tweet came during practice today. As I was looking at Powe walk on the field.

Best jersey

Best picture of John Dorsey from at least 10 yards away while he's not looking

More from Arrowhead Pride:

• KC Chiefs training camp 2013: Live updates, pictures and open thread
• Arrowheadlines: Kansas City Chiefs News 7/27
• KC Chiefs training camp schedule on an unseasonably cool day 2
• Welcome to Kansas City Chiefs training camp: Day 1 practice report
• Dwayne Bowe misses day 1 of KC Chiefs training camp, but he'll be fine