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At one point during the Kansas City Chiefs OTAs, the offensive line looked like this: LT Eric Fisher, LG Ben Grubbs, C Eric Kush, RG Jeff Allen, RT Donald Stephenson. Four of those players played under Andy Reid the last two years and are familiar with his offense. The other one is Ben Grubbs.
"It's been a learning process," Grubbs said Wednesday (via quotes from the Chiefs) after coming to KC in a trade from New Orleans. "Of course it's different plays, different terminology, but this is what this phase is for. It's to get the rust off, get acclimated to your teammates and just go out there and see what we all have. It's been good so far."
Grubbs mentioned the guy to his left (LT Eric Fisher) and his right (C Eric Kush) as two of the players that have really helped him with the playbook.
"I don't want to be a burden too much, but there are some things that I haven't quite gotten the grasp of, but they've been doing a really good job of bringing me along with them," Grubbs said.
Grubbs is a former Pro Bowler coming to an offensive line that struggled last year so I wouldn't say "burden" is the right word for what he his. More of an "upgrade" at the Chiefs left guard position.
"If you can't block them out here without any pads, then it's going to be kind of hard when they put the pads on," Grubbs told reporters on Wednesday. "So you want to make sure that you have a good grasp of the play concept and you want to make sure that you're in good relative position. Even though the physicality isn't there, you want to make sure that you're in position and you're in between him and the running back and them and the quarterback."
It's really impossible for outsiders to properly evaluate an offensive lineman during OTAs. The position requires you to make contact with the opponent but this is a non contact period of the offseason. The pads come on at training camp at which point we can get a better handle of how these linemen are doing.