The Kansas City Chiefs and Coach Andy Reid are ready to get back to work. Training camp has begun for the Chiefs at Missouri Western in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Reid is excited to get back into the nitty gritty of the game, blocking and tackling, learning how to hit with your helmet up. He’s very excited to be back on the field and progressing through towards the regular season. The one thing Reid isn’t too high on is working against another training camp team, as he said “I just don’t want to give anyone anything that I don’t have to give. There’s already enough of this right here.”
Reid loves the “dorm” life because it keeps everyone there, focused on football. He doesn’t feel the need to have a “must-have” comfort item. He’s fine with a playbook, flip flops, and shorts. He mentioned that he wants to continue to play aggressive on defense, even though there will be more of an emphasis on defensive holding this year, saying, “We’ll get a feel for it. The officials will be up there in the next few days. We’ll see how they go about their business. We’ll see it in the preseason games. Then we’ll see it for the season, and hopefully we’ll have a good feel for exactly how they’re going to be officiating.”
Star 1st round draft pick, Dee Ford also commented about the college-like life the players are experiencing right now, saying he will start thinking about it like going back to school. Ford is definitely ready to be here and ready to start his career, saying, “This is where it’s at. I can feel the football atmosphere here. The humbling dorm room just reminds me it’s time to work.”
Ford recently tweeted out that he has set his personal goals, however, he did not let the media know about it, saying, “That’s why they’re personal. The key word is personal, so I’m going to keep it that way.”
Two other rookies that will be looked at closely in Chiefs camp will be RB and Special Teams specialist De’Anthony Thomas and QB Aaron Murray.
Thomas didn’t really let too much out of the bag, but he did say that he feels his speed will adjust to the NFL and he doesn’t feel he’s 1 of those guys that slows down with pads on.
Murray, on the other hand, was a little bit more talkative than his fellow rookie. Murray says his knee feels great and that he’s just been continuing to study and work on his fundamentals. He said he’s a full go for camp, even if it’s with a brace. He said he’s learning a lot from the other QBs on the roster. That he’s learning how much hard work it takes and getting tips on learning the very complex, Andy Reid, playbook and tightening up his footwork.
Wide Receiver Kyle Williams also spoke to the media, admitting the WRs as a whole have to shake off cobwebs, but especially him recovering from ACL surgery. He feels in the normally pass heavy offensive of Andy Reid, it gives the WRs a lot of opportunities to succeed. One of the QBs giving them those opportunities is Chase Daniel. His goal in camp is to push the starting QB Alex Smith as much as possible and just to get better every day. He feels he is “Leaps and Bounds” above where he was in this offense last year and he believed that he has that “IT” factor winning QBs just seem to have when their team needs it.
Led by their Head Coach, Andy Reid, the Chiefs are poised to take another leap this season and forget about how last season ended. Reid’s coaching philosophy can be summed up by how he explained taking that loss to the Colts last year, saying, “Heck, there’s a ton you can learn from that game right there on how to finish. You have to know how to do that. There is no time to let your foot off the accelerator. That can make us a better team going forward. That I think is a positive. As much as it hurt and hurts when you lose any game and particularly a playoff game, those hurt, but at the same time, it’s something you can learn and build on for this coming year.” That’s exactly what the Kansas City Chiefs plan to do.
