Monday was the 15th full-team practice of Kansas City Chiefs training camp, a full-padded session that followed Saturday’s preseason opener, which ended in a 20-12 defeat to the Los Angeles Rams. An injury-status update from head coach Andy Reid can be found here.
After the game, Reid’s biggest note of criticism for his team centered around the 12 penalties called on Kansas City. He elaborated on that issue — which was almost entirely on the offense — after Monday’s practice at training camp in St. Joe.
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“Obviously, the five holding calls and the five illegal-procedure penalties: you can’t have those,” Reid said. “You have to be more disciplined than that, so we go back and keep stressing that.”
“On the offensive line, we’re overshooting things a little bit, and we have to make sure we cover up bodies on that in the run game,” Reid explained about the penalties. “In the pass game, you have to let go; there’s a time and place where you have to let go.
“It’s not an effort thing; it’s putting yourself in the right position,” Reid continued. “Disciplining it, and you do the same thing in practice; you work on that.”
With those coaching points, it isn’t surprising that the Chiefs held another high-intensity practice on the grass fields at Missouri Western State University to start this week.
Offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy was hard on the starting offense, including a pointed effort to make wide receiver Rashee Rice finish through a play after the catch. The fourth-year wideout was jogging back to the huddle before Bieniemy’s remarks had him turning back around and running downfield again.
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Earlier in the practice, when the quarterbacks and receivers were running routes on air on the far field, first-year wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea could be heard imploring his players.
“Details, guys! Details,” O’Shea said loudly before instructing a receiver to run his route again.
At the podium, Reid was asked about what he has seen from new assistant coaches like O’Shea or running backs coach DeMarco Murray.
“I like the detail that they’re bringing to the group there,” Reid responded. “They’re staying on the guys… they’ve got some young guys that they’re dealing with, and new guys… there’s a lot of teaching going on, and they’re doing a good job of doing the teaching.”
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Offensive lineup notes
Jaylon Moore gets a look at right guard
Speaking of details, there are a lot of them that go into each position along the offensive line. Chiefs offensive line coach Andy Heck has always made an effort to cross-train Kansas City’s young players in order to maximize their talent, and that has been the case with rookie Kahlil Benson this camp.
He has played both guard and tackle on the right side, and now veteran Jaylon Moore is working into that same kind of versatile role as the team continues on without starting right guard Trey Smith (Hip). Reid provided (a little) more clarity on how the team has been handling the competition at right tackle, now less than a month until Week 1.
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“Moore has been doing a great job in there for us, but with that, Benson doesn’t get any reps at it,” Reid explained. “We want him to go against the better players and have a chance to continue to grow there. So we just flopped them over and let Moore get some reps at guard, and Benson get some reps at the tackle spot.”
“Benson held his own at the guard spot in the game,” Reid elaborated. “They need to be able to play both as we go through this thing. It’s good experience, but it’s not one over the other. Moore has put together a lot of good days here and played [well] the other night.”
Emmett Johnson takes the second reps at running back
After one snap of running back Kenneth Walker in Saturday’s preseason game, second-year back Brashard Smith came in and made a nice play on a screen pass that wasn’t well-blocked.
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It was a flash of Smith’s playmaking, but rookie running back Emmett Johnson looked much more comfortable and more effective on traditional handoffs. To me, it wasn’t surprising that Johnson has supplanted Smith as the second back in drills at practice.
Still, Johnson has details to hone if he wants to build on this momentum.
“He ran hard, some of his footwork… I’m not saying he went the wrong way,” Reid began. “But we tried to tie the footwork up for the back with the offensive line; you have to be able to set those guys up. There has to be a certain amount of patience, and your angle becomes important on that that you take to the line of scrimmage, so he could work on that.”
“As far as the effort and the ability to make people miss, you got a pretty good idea of his vision,” Reid reflected. “All of those things were positives.”
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Other notes from practice
Second-year defensive end Ashton Gillotte returned to fully participate in practice, picking up a unique role the Chiefs teased during the first portion of camp. In the starting base defense, Gillotte played the SAM linebacker role, the strong-side player who represents a fifth man on the line of scrimmage; he lined up next to down linemen George Karlaftis, Chris Jones, Khyiris Tonga and R Mason Thomas.
Speaking of Thomas, it felt like he overtook the first-team snaps that fourth-year defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah was seeing prior to the first preseason game. During the walkthrough portions of early practice, Anudike-Uzomah was exclusively with the second-team unit on the other side of the field.
Wide receiver Xavier Worthy participated in practice and made a big play in seven-on-seven, but he was not a full participant. In 11-on-11 periods, the starting receivers were Rashee Rice, Tyquan Thornton and rookie Cyrus Allen. Anecdotally, Allen has a stronger spot in the rotation than second-year wideout Jalen Royals does.
The team will be back at practice in St. Joe on Tuesday morning, starting at 9:15 a.m.
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