Paul Pulley’s Day 7 Camp Notes:
Thursday, August 2nd
OPEN THREAD – Day 8
Yes, I went to Chiefs training camp Thursday. Yes, it was a semi-planned trip but right now it’s hard for me to plan much in advance. My father lives only about 25 minutes from Mo West, so I was able to do double duty and spend a few hours with him after camp, totally cool. A bonus was my son showed up unexpectedly at Dad’s while I was there. Double Cool.
I don’t plan on wasting your time writing about things you have already read and seen on Laddie’s re-tweets here at ArrowheadOne. Since I am writing this after I got home, I will be writing using “today” as when things happened. I know you won’t be reading this on August 2nd, but Thursday is the day of these happenings.
After driving for about an hour, I realized I had left home without my camera, so I got my boneheaded move of the day taken care of first thing. I will be writing as things pop into my head so the timeline will be way out of order.
I did read through all of the tweets Laddie posted and I find it amazing what is left out.
Today was a beautiful day. I drove by a bank thermometer that showed 66 degrees. It was mostly sunny with a light breeze. I arrived at Mo West at 8 a.m. and the players were already on the field warming up. I didn’t leave until after 11:00 and a few players were still working individually.
Yes, there were a lot of TDs thrown today. There was a tremendous amount of red zone and goal-line work today, all passes. I read the tweet about the rollout and pass that Hill dropped, what I didn’t read was about three plays later, an identical play was ran and Hill caught it. There was a TD thrown to Kelce by Mahomes that hit him right in the breadbasket. That ball was thrown so hard that if Kelce didn’t have an innie before, he does now.
During those drills there was a high throw by Mahomes (he threw several high) that Kelce went up and got his hands on but dropped. Kelce was covered well (I don’t remember by who) but he was so upset about not making the catch that he screamed out a F-bomb so loud that I heard it clearly from 30+ yards away, and I have poor hearing.
I did not see what happened to Eric Fisher or Cam Erving… to start the day, Erving was the starting LG. I do think it was mentioned but interesting none the less, that Parker Ehinger never got a rep with the 1st team. What I didn’t see mentioned was during team drills, Hill took a huge shot (I think by Murray but I’m not sure) and laid on the field for a while. Hill didn’t look good getting off the field but stayed on the sideline. He sat out quite a while but did finally come back in.
It has been mentioned that Breeland Speaks (who seems to have dropped some weight) and Tanoh Kpassagnon might move inside on some downs, but both worked exclusively with OLBs in position work. It has also been mentioned that Dorian O’Daniel might play some safety, but he worked exclusively with ILBs.
Early in practice there was a lot of time spent with a number of players fielding punts, with the balls coming off a JUGS (football throwing machine). The JUGS was set up on the 35 with the players fielding at the opposite 10 yard line, give or take a few yards. It looked like every WR was fielding punts except Watkins. Only two non-receivers were in that group, CB Tremon Smith and RB Kerwynn Williams. It’s amazing how some of those guys can read the ball as soon as it’s in the air and just mosey over and wait for the ball while others are in a constant state of movement adjusting to the flight of the ball. Hill is excellent at that, not that this will surprise anyone. Smith was good at it but one of the best was Gehrig Dieter, he was maybe as good as Hill at tracking the ball. I think the only “punt” dropped was by Daniel Braverman.
Later on in practice during actual punting drills, DAT fielded some punts late but the first three were Hill, Smith and K. Williams, in that order. When the punt team moved up closer to mid-field, Tremon Smith joined the punt unit as a gunner. This kid is fast. On one punt, with the ball on the 45-yard line, Smith blew by the jammer and got down the field fast enough he beat the ball to the opposite 10-yard line.
Colquitt is still a very good punter. I can recall about 5 punts from the “Chiefs” 45 yard line, the one mentioned above, another one very similar that I believe Robinson (who had a good day) got down to actually catch the punt at about the opponents 8-yard line. I believe there was one touchback and Colquitt put two out of bounds inside the 5-yard line.
I believe both Tremon Smith and Demarcus Robinson will be special teams stars this year.
Speaking of K. Williams, he received a lot of work running the ball in team drills today. I don’t think there is any doubt that Kareem Hunt will be the starting RB. Spencer Ware looked good but didn’t participate in any contact drills.
Dorian O’Daniel looks good not only in pass defense but also rushing the passer. He absolutely blew up K. Williams in 1-on-1 pass rushing drills. The funnest to watch in those drills were the Anthony’s: Hitchens trying to get by Sherman, it almost happened once but Hitchens was frustrated with the way Sherman was able to handle his rush. I do think that Kareem Hunt has improved his pass protection over the off-season. He isn’t top notch by any means but he does look to have gotten better.
I didn’t see much out of Damien Williams today but Darrel Williams had quite a few carries and looked good doing it. Every RB on the team, with a shot at making the 53 man roster, has very good hands catching passes out of the backfield.
On the subject of catching passes, not only did DRob have a great day but Demetrius Harris was almost as impressive today. Harris had a number of receptions and I only remember one drop. For those of us who are hoping for something from Jace Amaro, he seemed to be the last TE to rotate in on all the drills, although he did seem to catch most of the passes he was targeted. The D-backs did win a few.
Defensive Backs: I spent quite a bit of time watching the DBs today and this seasons defensive backfield is going to be so much improved from last year. I truly believe this. Why the Raiders didn’t play Amerson last year and then released him is beyond me, the only thing I can think of is they’re stupid. Why the Redskins would even think of trading away Kendall Fuller, let alone actually doing it is beyond me, the only thing I can think of is they’re stupid.
For the Dirty Dan fans, Sorenson was first string safety along side Berry today, with Fuller, Amerson and Nelson starting corners. I’m sure we could add Tremon Smith to this list, but who else makes the 53 might just be up for grabs right now. Oh yeah, McQuay had a good practice. The tipped INT was mentioned, but he had a few more good plays also, not only on defense but special teams as well.
I saw D’Montre Wade make a couple of plays but I didn’t notice Armani Watts at all. That isn’t good or bad, I just didn’t notice him making any plays.
I did not see either Derrick Nnadi or Reggie Ragland at all today, so I don’t know of their status.
Well, right or wrong, this is how I saw things happen at the Kansas City Chiefs training camp on Thursday, August 2nd (Day 6). One final thought, it is really weird to see jersey number 56 on the field and not have JOHNSON written on the back of it.
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