Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp Week One Wrap Up

The first week of training camp for the Kansas City Chiefs is in the bag. According to head coach Andy Reid, the team has the day off tomorrow before going back at in pads on Friday.

This first week of practice saw the Chiefs transition from conducting walkthroughs in shorts and t-shirts to full-contact hitting in pads and helmets. Per Terez Paylor, the best damn Chiefs beat writer out there, there are only 17 players on the 90-man camp roster who were present at Reid’s first practice with the Chiefs in July of 2013. Therefore, there was a lot of playbook installation and teaching going on this week as well. Unfortunately, the week wasn’t without injury, though thankfully nothing seemed too serious.

Wide receiver Albert Wilson has sat out a couple of days of practice due to a sprained calf and safety Daniel Sorensen has foot sprain. While neither injury is particularly serious, they are bothersome because both of these guys could have a chance to really step up with the team this year and they are missing valuable reps because of their nicks. Perhaps the biggest potential injury occurred yesterday when rookie guard Parker Ehinger was carted off the field. Thankfully though, it didn’t seem to be too serious, described by Reid as a “little bit of a foot sprain.” That wasn’t enough to keep Ehinger off of the field for long though as he returned today and seems to be fine.

The final note in regards to injuries during the first week of camp, was the fact that linebackers Justin Houston and Tamba Hali as well as running back Jamaal Charles were placed on the physically unable to perform or PUP list. While this was expected for Houston because of the discovery that his ACL wasn’t working correctly, and the subsequent surgery, having Charles and Hali land on the list is less than positive. However, as Reid put it earlier this week in regards to Charles: “He’s on track and he’s played a lot of downs, so he knows what he needs to do to be ready and I think we’ll be fine there.” So, there’s that. There hasn’t been any other news on the PUP front and thus far, only the three Chiefs superstars have landed there.

Training camp is a time when fringe players make a name for themselves. I can remember when former Chiefs receiver Jon Baldwin was going to be a superstar in this league because of this catch:

Now, we all know exactly what happened to Jon. He amounted to absolutely nothing in regards to the Kansas City Chiefs. I heard he’s selling shoes at a Footlocker in the Pittsburgh suburbs somewhere. In fact, I think former Chiefs quarterback Tyler Palko might be the manager of the store he works at, but I’d have to check my sources within the Footlocker corporate team to be sure. But I digress…my point here is, we can’t anoint “anyone” as the next “anything” while the team is still staying in the dorms and eating at the mess hall in St. Joe.

However…if we were going to talk about a player who is truly separating himself from the competition literally and figuratively, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Chiefs’ fifth-round pick from West Alabama, Tyreek Hill.

As most of you know, Hill came to this team under quite a bit of scrutiny. He was charged and plead guilty to domestic assault on allegations he choked and punched his then-pregnant 20-year old girlfriend. Chiefs Kingdom nearly universally “booed” the decision, John Dorsey for drafting him and the Hunt family for allowing the pick to be made. There were only a few outliers who took the stance of “he paid his time, let him move on.” While I’m sure the substance of his crime has not been forgotten by Chiefs fans, many have decided to move on from their anger towards the young man and allow him to play football. And he’s playing some football. Here a few tweets fired off from some media who attended camp this week, showing Hill’s speed and moves:

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Like I said, I’m not trying to anoint anybody, anything, but damn…this guy looks good. The media asked him today what cornerback Marcus Peters said to him when he beat him on that “go” route. His answer: “good job, rookie.” When the media asked Peters about Hill, Peters only could compliment the young receiver.

 

“He’s fast as hell. It’s fun. That’s the competition we need. That’s what we’ll need from him all through the season. I told him, “Man, we’re going to need you to do that during the season, so just keep practicing.’ He’s doing a real wonderful job just coming in everyday and working, so just keep working, man.”

As the first week of camp comes to end, there’s not much movement on the 53-man roster front. It’s still much too early to tell who will stay and who will go in regards to the fringe players. While many of the starting lineup positions are set, nobody truly knows who could fill some other positions.

Some camp battles to watch in the next week:

Who will secure that No. 2 QB spot? Will Tyler Bray hold onto it as he has seemed to this whole week or will he give ground to Aaron Murray? Perhaps Kevin Hogan will come out of nowhere and overtake one or both of them.

Who will secure that No. 2 CB spot? We all know that Peters is the hands-down starter, but who lines up across the field from him? Will it be Phillip Gaines who is returning from a torn ACL-abbreviated season last year? Could Stephen Nelson, drafted last year along with Peters come into the mix?

Who will fill the remaining offense line positions? Will Ehringer hold onto his job at guard? Will Jah Reid, Zach Fulton or Laurence Durvarney-Tardiff come in and snatch that job? If you ask LDT, the job is already his. Check out this tweet from Nick Jacobs of Doctor Larry taking down Dontari Poe, making the big man mad in the process:

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There is a lot of camp left to go, but the Chiefs’ first preseason game is just 10 short days away. It will be interesting/awesome to see the Red and Gold take the field for the very first time this season (yes, I caved to peer pressure there) and really begin to evaluate the players for ourselves. 

Let us know, Chiefs fans! What are you looking forward to in the next week of camp?