Chiefs training camp: The pads come out on Monday

The Kansas City Chiefs will finally be having a practice that resembles real football. The Chiefs will be putting on the pads for the first time this year at Monday's training camp practice at Missouri Western State University.

"I like to think of myself as a physical football player," Chiefs TE Travis Kelce said (via quotes from the Chiefs). "Putting the pads on is going to add that other part of my game into how I go about going against the defense."

The Chiefs don't wear pads during any portion of the offseason, including OTAs and minicamps earlier in the year. Those are just helmets and shorts. The Chiefs also don't wear pads the first three days they arrive in St. Joe for training camp. Monday will be the first day and it will be a welcome one.

Andy Reid actually lets the players have a few live drills where they are tackling each other. Of course, they don't want anyone blind siding Alex Smith or anything like that but Reid does let them do a little hitting. The previous Chiefs regimes, including Romeo Crennel and Todd Haley, really didn't do any live hitting at camp.

The other part of going full pads is steering clear of injuries. The last thing anyone wants is to see an injury at the hands of one of their teammates. The Chiefs need to balance the need to get physical to prepare themselves for the real hitting in September while also avoiding anything that will injure anyone. It's an impossible balance.

The Chiefs players are lucky that they practice in the morning when it's cooler. The Todd Haley Chiefs practiced in the afternoon, and that was miserable.