The Kansas City Chiefs finally got to Training Camp, Day One, 2021. Pins and needles of anticipation had to be felt by every fan, pundit, analyst and sports nut out in Chiefs Kingdom. The day rolled by as if it were speeding train passing a station between points on a railway line… whoosh. It was here, and then it was gone.
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My thoughts turned to my impressions of the day based on Practice Organization and player involvement, so I am organizing this article with the first part related to Chiefs Training Camp, Day One followed by other gatherings of the past few days.
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Chiefs Training Camp, Day One
Most Important Note of the Day: A Nod to Trey Smith!
Some may have been surprised in regards to the initial Offensive Line player inclusions in front of Patrick Mahomes. It did come as a surprise to me as well when Smith began camp with the “ones” at RG. Here’s why:
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My thoughts had turned away from Smith winning the starting role after some public cautions, but when Kyle Long was injured and known to be unavailable, I was certain that Trey Smith had an open road to becoming the Chiefs starter at RG. Second thoughts, overcame my position on such a projection, largely because I have known that Andy Reid favors experienced players over newcomers. Finally, I arrived at a decision about the quality of players that were brought aboard due to the departure of Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz as well as having returning Veterans such as Laurent Duvernay-Tardif while at the same time GM Brett Veach brought aboard several veterans to completely rebuild the offensive line.
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Finally, I think, as did Laddie, K.C. had decided that they just weren’t going to start 3 rookies. We had both concluded that Reid, Bieniemy and Andy Heck, were going to have a rookie starting as the Offensive Center, with Creed Humphrey winning the role over Free Agent Austin Blythe. I have stuck with Creed Humphrey succeeding Austin Reiter.
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Meanwhile, though I still believed Trey Smith was an NFL ready rookie, I backed away from he and Lucas Niang becoming starters for 2021’s opening day. It’s true that I remain convinced of Smith’s skill set and tenacity (and a bit of nastiness folded in) though he fell drastically in the draft to the 6th round. Both Laddie and believed in him enough to see him, at the very least as the starter on the right side in 2022. The reasoning for this was Long’s springtime injury, his age which will be 32 in 2022 and also noting that LDT would also be 31 in this projection. I remain confident of that, as does Laddie.
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Laddie Morse, our illustrious ArrowheadOne leader and myself, had discussed this possibility in several telephone exchanges after the draft running up to rookie camp and the OTA’s. Some might be surprised to see Trey Smith in there over a veteran like LDT, but it was also predicted earlier this week by Charles Goldman. Andy Reid typically is partial to veterans, so this just shows you how much the rookie has impressed the HC and coaching staff.
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In his presser after Day One, Reid was very complimentary observing about Smith:
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“Yeah, well it was consistency… he’d done a nice job. Not that it’s perfect, he’s a young guy. But he showed enough to legitimately be in that position for right now and then he’s got to compete. So, we’ll see how all of that goes when we get the pads on.”
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At the end of the day — as Eric Bieniemy frequently verbalizes — I once again moved Smith back up to earning the role as the Chiefs starting RG!
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Matt Derrick, K.C. beat writer for Chiefs Digest, provided us a list of the “Ones” for the offensive Line on Day One. I know this is far too early to state that the outcome of the camp battles for each position are over. This is just the opening of camp arrangement. He listed:
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LT Orlando Brown Jr.
LG Joe Thuney
C Creed Humphrey
RG Trey Smith
RT Mike Remmers
Sam McDowell, Chiefs Sports Writer for the Kansas City Star, listed the twos:
LT Lucas Niang
LG Nick Allegretti
C Austin Blythe
RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif
RT Andrew Wylie
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What I see in the first list has no surprise except for Smith. With the “twos” having Andrew Wylie listed did come as a surprise. Wylie had a far less than stellar season playing guard, but one thing I give as a logical reason for poor play for other players was, the injury plague of 2020. We’ll have to take that in consideration for Training Camp and Preseason games.
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I think highly of the work of Craig Stout, Matt Lane and Kent Swanson who form a triumvirate at the newly formed KC Sports Network and who have produced the KC Lab podcasts, were also surprised, but not shocked at how the starters on the OL were set up for the first day of camp.
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Craig Stout apparently believes that Smith will earn a starter role. Kent Swanson is fairly adamant that this will not happen because of consideration that Humphrey, a rookie, would win the starting job at OC.
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More Day One Notes
Matt Lane observed that the battle for starting roles was far from over, but that Smith had a head start at RG.
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I don’t think that it should be a huge surprise that Lucas Niang worked the LT position. My thoughts about that can go back to a pre-draft time frame, before Orlando Brown, Jr. was the object of a major trade to bring him to K.C. Niang sat out last year due to the virus crisis, so he is essentially a rookie, drafted in 2020, but getting his first full camp with the Chiefs in 2021.
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I watched his workout video several times as did Laddie Morse. I believed at that time he could be moved to the left side, but Laddie observed, and rightly so, that Niang was far smoother on the right side with his foot drops than what he showed on the left. He’s a natural RT. Mike Remmers though, played RT after Mitch Schwartz was out of the game in week six and he played well. It’s obvious that the coaching staff placed him with the “ones” for the opening day of camp.
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Niang, working the left side, may not be a natural, but it appears to me that his use on the left is to get him the reps necessary for him to get comfortable behind Orlando Brown. This should not be disheartening for Lucas since I see him as the only true viable candidate to replace Brown should an injury occur. Niang, if he doesn’t overtake Mike Remmers, would then be the designated Swing Tackle. I think that works.
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Somewhat surprising was Wylie being worked at the RT, but I suppose that would mean he could be a depth player at both Guard or Tackle. We’ll see.
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From the Words of Orlando Brown, Jr.
BTW… I Really Like This Guy!
I valued the player Orlando Brown despite him playing for a rival. When Brett Veach orchestrated the trade to obtain him, it was something that Laddie and I jointly breathed a huge sigh of relief about, and much of that was due to our concern with replacing Eric Fisher. Other moves relieved tension about the OL over all and it came down to worry about a single starter position, that being RT. Still of concern was the unknown backup for LT. However, Lucas Niang looks like he’ll nail that down and will also be competing for the RT tackle starting role while there are sufficient players to handle the #2 type assignee.
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From the verbosity and astuteness of Orlando Brown brings focus to what he can do, his football moxie, leadership and even the understanding now that the man has a great sense of humor. Some Brown takes:
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“Yeah, we’ve actually been communicating all off-season. I’d say definitely ever since we all stepped in the building together in OTAs, and it’s a great group…I think that’s one of the most important things to a great offensive line is just the continuity off the field. If the continuity is good off the field, then it’ll be great on the field. We play a position that’s hard, that’s very different I feel like from a lot of positions and sometimes all you have are the guys on that offensive line of scrimmage with you to lean on, and man I think we’ve got a really good group going into this.”
Others have noted his leadership and it shows up often. Like what Brown is demonstrating when he says:
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“We got a bunch of renegades up front… they brought in a bunch of great guys who love the game of football and play this game very emotionally. We’re all emotionally invested in each other, the game, and this team. There isn’t any selfish guys on the offensive line that we have here in this group of 15, 16 men. I’m super excited to get to work, it’s definitely time to prove it as opposed to talking about it.”
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This from a veteran lineman, even considering the new mix of players to a complete miracle worked by GM Brett Veach in bringing the players to the Kingdom, including rookies. Brown is “inclusive”. Brown knows what is coming. He wanted to be traded from the Ravens so that he could be a LT… following in his Father’s footsteps. He said:
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“I am excited… one of my favorite parts of football isn’t just necessarily just wearing helmets, but the shoulder pads too. Once we get the shoulder pads on, things get rocking. hat’s when the real ball players come out and that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
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He spoke about Run blocking for the Chiefs RB’s:
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“This will be a great group, I think we’ll definitely be able to run the ball. I don’t want to speak on years past cause I wasn’t here and they had some great players here, but we got some great players here now and we’re excited for the opportunity to do whatever coach asks us to do. Obviously, you talk to any offensive lineman and they’ll tell you they enjoy running the ball more than passing it — but at the end of the day, I’m here to do my job at the highest level and I don’t care what they call.”
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“It’s similar to what Trey (Smith) said, it’s just the mentality of the group of men here…I think this will be a great group and I think we definitely will be able to run the ball. . . It’s a bunch of great players here now and man, we’re excited for the opportunity to do whatever coach asks us to do. But, obviously, you talk to any offensive lineman and they’ll tell you that they enjoy running the ball more than they enjoy passing it. But at the end of the day, I’m here to do my job, I don’t really care what they call.”
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I think you can see why I value so highly the goals and leadership of Orlando Brown, Jr. for the Chiefs.
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David Bell — ArrowheadOne
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Stay tuned for blogging about
Chiefs Training, Camp Day 2
beginning at 9:15 AM CDT.
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