In the Chiefs First Pre-Season Game

In the First Preseason Game

by David Bell

In the Chiefs first preseason game… you might see two series’ with the starters. At training camp we are witnessing a tough upbeat defense contending with the offense. As per usual, the defense is ahead of the curve. First off, you have some new players working to blend, a new starting QB who is learning to run the show sans Alex Smith — that takes a lot of work. That work has a learning curve. Patrick Mahomes is somewhere in the middle or slightly ahead of the wave.

Your local retired educator is not going to talk about this view because he dealt with very young students. Later on at the level I started to teach, and then as an educator in a professional environment, you learn that “Rocks do not float.” On the football field, the same is true at every position. When you have no resume and you don’t make one in camp? You are going to be a heavy object. If you establish the one-liners as you go through camp but cannot build upon those items in preseason, your sudden weight gain is not going to help you float into a roster spot.

In much of the view about players and their abilities is a sort of a “Cheat.” After all, only so many players can get to the combine. From there you have players adding stats to their metrics at Pro Days. Often, a player comes to the fore from those measurements. They get a camp invite, or better, they are tendered a UDFA contract. The metrics exist but the looks by the pro scouts, affiliated or not, become a recording instrument for each player. Mostly these involve the lesser conference and small NCAA institutions. Or even a guy hidden at a major school who is not touted. This is where gold is struck.

Camp for the Chiefs at St. Joe has been very informative. It is this way about the basic roster players from last season but also crucially important for the drafted players, UDFA’s, invited players and signed free agents.

With a new GM at the helm of the Chiefs football club, fans, pundits, scouts, advisors, coaches and various other observers have put on the magic magnifying glasses and have been hard at it using them to analyze details to match up with metrics and stats recorded for each player. Then they step back to field glasses to watch specific players. Now think on this: that is still a highly focused view and does not account for the full field of play on both sides of the ball.

Highly intense focus is necessary but also seeing how the player performs in pads is very important. Seeing how they fit the scheme for their particular role on the team is also a huge factor. Suddenly, players from lesser ranked schools, or who were players hidden behind their collegiate fellows were the “Stars” comes to a fruition that cannot be examined as it has been before.

There are several examples on the Chiefs roster from smaller programs, such as Arkansas State. Or players from major universities like Iowa or LSU who were hidden behind other highly touted players. The Chiefs have an abundance of such contributors competing for a role on an NFL Roster.

So, now it is a necessity to take a step back and let the players play the game and use their talent to earn that “dream spot,” a position on an NFL Roster. The fun has started. Let’s enjoy it. The Chiefs are positioned well with talent. They are going to need it to open the season with an essential rookie QB, newcomers to positions where pros are absent from last year. That part occurs each year on all NFL Teams.

Let’s watch this unfold. After all, the love of the game starts in the anticipation! A plan, a forecast and an implementation. Just as a farmer would approach the new seasons crop. The same as the adage success can be predicted early in the growth of the crop, and if it’s corn? The adage was knee high at the fourth of July. If it exceeded this, the year might have a bumper crop.

It is the rest of the season that counts. Rain must fall and provide growth to the plant, the corn must tassel and the fruit of the plant must then have the moister to produce, and with corn? You wanted 3 large ears per stock. Should all that happen you hope the market position was selected properly for the sale of the product and the result was an abundance of wealth.

In the Chiefs case? They planted the crop and it appears to be knee high and beyond with players and the outlook. We must see the fruit grow and become ready for harvest. It is a timing of multiple facets of the game, the staff, the coaches and players. Let’s appreciate on Thursday, the labor of the field and the results to come. I think Brett Veach and Company have done a fine job of situating the team. Let’s have fun now and go with the flow after all the preseason prep, planning and work.

It’s strikes me, at this moment, that theme is where we are in the process… the fruit is planted, it was knee high or better. It’s time for the fruit to grow on the plant so that an abundant harvest will occur — an appropriate analogy for, the Chiefs, the city of Kansas City — in the right place for things in the middle west.

David Bell — ArrowheadOne

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