Arrowheadlines: The Chiefs expect a fast start on defense

The latest

Chiefs believe familiarity will breed fast start for defense | ESPN

“At the beginning of the season we were trying to learn the defense,” safety Juan Thornhill said. “We were trying to figure out how to play together, trying to figure out what were guys’ strengths and weaknesses. Midway through the season we started to click because guys started to know.

“I didn’t know what [Mathieu] was good at and I didn’t know what he was bad at. Once we started playing a few weeks together we started to get that feeling that ‘OK, I know he’s going to do this.’ We started making more plays because we were confident in what our teammates could do.”

This year, the Chiefs have no convenient reasons for not starting better on defense. They’re bringing back their full defensive coaching staff and 10 starters from Super Bowl LIV. They didn’t have offseason practice or preseason games, but that’s no different from any other team.

Patrick Mahomes Does Unbelievable Things in Real Life. So What Can He Do in ‘Madden’? | The Ringer

The Chiefs are the perfect team to analyze with Madden ratings. There are only 20 players in Madden with a 96 overall or higher, and Kansas City’s offense has four of them. Mahomes is the best quarterback in the game and he has the best pass catchers too. Tyreek Hill (99 speed) and Mecole Hardman (97 speed) are two of the five fastest players in the game. That speed combined with Mahomes having the second-best deep passing (and 97 throw power) is just silly. Tight end Travis Kelce (97 overall) is virtually unguardable in one-on-one situations and he dominates the intermediate routes that are so effective for quality tight ends. This embarrassment of skills that dovetail together is not an exaggeration of the Chiefs’ talent, but rather an accurate reflection of the Super Bowl–winning team Kansas City built. It just so happens that the team the Chiefs won the Super Bowl with is also the exact team you’d want in Madden.

Ranking all 32 NFL teams by training camp performance: Ravens, Steelers among the top five | CBS Sports

7. Kansas City Chiefs

Make no mistake: They’re still No. 1 or 2 in actual power rankings. But losing Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Damien Williams weren’t necessarily small changes. By Week 1, Patrick Mahomes and Co. will prove that camp headlines don’t mean anything.

AFC West’s most intriguing 2020 additions: It’s all about explosive rookies on offense | CBS Sports

Kansas City Chiefs

We can talk all we want about how using a first-round pick on a running back was not the best way for the Chiefs to allocate their resources — and honestly, it almost certainly wasn’t. But that doesn’t make Clyde Edwards-Helaire any less intriguing. Edwards-Helaire should be an absolute monster in 2020, one of the most productive backs in the entire league. He has the perfect skill set to succeed in the pass-heavy Chiefs offense, Andy Reid has already compared him to former Eagles star Brian Westbrook, and he is going to be the feature back from Day 1 after Damien Williams opted out of participating in the 2020 season.

NFL: According to “Madden NFL 21”, It’ll Be Chiefs Vs. Bears in Super Bowl LV | Ozark Radio News

At the top we see the Chicago Bears going 14-2 and meeting up with the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

The Bears’ stellar season was led by none other than Nick Foles who also completed 70 percent of his passes for an eye-popping 4,801 yards, 44 TDs, and just 5 interceptions. This run by Foles garners him the 2020 NFL MVP award.

In Super Bowl LV Foles wins another MVP award by throwing for six touchdowns (tying the Super Bowl record) as he leads the Bears to a 42-24 win over the Chiefs.

Around the NFL

NFL insider notes: 2020 offers experiment for what truly drives home-field advantage, beat-writer ban and more | CBS Sports

Useless Twitter crackdown

It’s hard for me to think of something more useless and regressive than what the Packers (and others) have decided to do this training camp by severely limiting what beat reporters can report during and after practices.

In Green Bay, GM Brian Gutekunst has proudly taken responsibility for limiting what the press can tweet from camp practice. In Buffalo, the Bills have suspended their own reporter for sharing details from training camp, according to The Athletic. Another reporter tweeted Thursday that his name has been removed from more than 200 articles on the Bills official team site.

The idea from teams goes like this: Our pro scouts follow beat writers from other teams reporting on position rotations and play types. In a preseason without exhibitions and tape on opponents, we want to limit our exposure and not give away our secrets to future opponents.

Training Camp Buzz: ‘No butterflies’ for Tom Brady in first scrimmage with Bucs | NFL.com

Tom Brady threw his first passes as a Buccaneer at Raymond James Stadium on Friday, and to the surprise of no one, Brady was free of the jitters. “No butterflies,” Brady said of his first attempts in his new home stadium. The sun, humidity and pumped-in crowd noise couldn’t affect the quarterback, perhaps because — pulls out magnifying glass — the audio track may have sounded familiar. “I thought it was one of the Colts’ old tapes when they were pumping noise into the RCA Dome,” Brady said, per The Athletic’s Greg Auman. It was a joke, of course, but another example of how Brady’s first season outside of New England will be different for more than just a change in uniform. Even amid all of the strange circumstances, Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians was pleased by the 43-year-old quarterback’s, saying he thought Brady had “a hell of a day.” “I thought Tom was very efficient,” Arians said, again via Auman. “Good job of leadership.” In a preseason process devoid of actual games, the closest teams can get to replicating a gameday environment is by traveling to their stadiums, pumping in crowd noise, running the scoreboard graphics and creating a mock game. Arians said he wasn’t sure if the Bucs would run it back once more before the season begins, but as for Friday’s test run, nothing but good signs from TB12, who was “kind of pushing the guys” through camp fatigue during the scrimmage, per NFL Network’s James Palmer. “The competition is on,” Brady said, per Bucs senior writer Scott Smith. “It doesn’t start in two weeks. It has already started.”

Steelers’ Mike Tomlin: Privilege doesn’t shield us from outrage, sadness | ESPN

“We are committed to taking action and being a part of the solution to face social injustice and prejudice that we all face, not only in our country, but worldwide,” Tomlin said. “It is our desire to be active participants in the formation of a more perfect union.

“That being said, we realize recent events are a continued reminder of how far we are from that. We stand before you acknowledging that we are blessed and privileged. But that privilege does not shield us from sadness. This privilege does not shield us from shock or outrage. It does not shield us from fear, fear for our safety, or a loved one or an uncertain future. Beyond being football men, first and foremost we are husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, uncles, members of a community. We wanted to pause and share with those that are hurting tonight that we see you, that we hear you, but most importantly we stand with you.”

Mike McCarthy apparently allows his Dallas Cowboys players more leeway than Jason Garrett did | Blogging the Boys (Dallas Cowboys SB Nation site)

“So far… it’s just, it’s a totally different environment walking in the building now. It’s kind of like a breath of fresh air when you walk in right now with Coach McCarthy coming in. The players have a lot more leeway to say what we want to do and like, he give us more opportunities to express ourselves I would say.”

What kind of leeway do the players have with McCarthy that they seemingly didn’t with Garrett? Anthony Brown played four years under Garrett so he certainly knew life with him quite well, while this answer was not said in any sort of negative tone or connotation, it does spark questions as to what he could be specifically talking about.

Jason Garrett was never known to be the most strict head coach in the world so it’s not like there is a reputation of his for stifling players. To be clear, it’s not like Brown was saying Jason Garrett hindered them dramatically, but clearly the difference is stark enough that he noticed it and mentioned it.

In case you missed it at Arrowhead Pride

Matt House on starting linebackers, backup MIKE and Ben Niemann

HOUSE: “We’re still evaluating. We’re still competing to improve...We don’t want to get stale by getting into Houston too quick.”

House is notoriously tight-lipped about his players, but the “evaluating” and “competing” lines stuck out with so little time left in camp. With Anthony Hitchens locked into the MIKE role for the Chiefs defense, only one spot is truly up for grabs in the Chiefs’ most prevalent Buffalo package. Damien Wilson has been absent, giving Gay and Niemann a chance to make their case next to Hitchens.

While Gay indicated that Wilson was the starting BUCK in the Chiefs Buffalo package last week, House’s comment indicates that it’s not set in stone. Contrasting these comments with Spagnuolo and Sam Madison’s cornerback notes — as well as Dave Toub’s gunner thoughts — make House’s words stick out just a little bit more, especially with just two weeks left until the season kicks off.

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