Going into training camp the Kansas City Chiefs were looking to improve their offensive line, defensive front, and their run defense. Last season the Chiefs had gotten into a rhythm with making plays happen and was neck and neck with the Denver Broncos on getting the division title, but a few costly errors had caused the Chiefs to lose a hold with the divisional chase. The Chiefs went on to the post season only to have the Indianapolis Colts come back from a large deficit and shatter their hopes on going forward with their Super Bowl aspirations.
Chiefs’ defensive coordinator Bob Sutton has his players playing at a high potential and it’s only preseason, but he feels like his players could handle the extensive practices that they had held. Sutton has been exercising the fact that the Refs will be enforcing more on the pass interference calls and have been teaching his players different ways you could use your hands within the five yard zone.
“We told the players we’ve got to adjust as if this is going to continue and that just means you are going to have to be very diligent with your technique. You’re going to have to respect the five-yard rule which has always been a rule anyways, then just know that it’s like any game even before this. The enforcement of the rule has kind of been upped a little bit, but anytime you’re in a game whether they call holding or a different penalty. You have to understand the officials that you are dealing with and you’ve got to adjust. . So our players are aware of it. We’re still going to try to challenge the receivers as much as we can and we’ve just got to keep emphasizing cleaning up our technique says Sutton.
There has been some praise for the young talent Dee Ford, but Sutton feels like he needs to improve. “He’s like any young player, especially a guy that’s a good rusher. He’s got to learn how to play the run and some of those are on downs that might be passing downs or passing sets. You have to learn how to read the set of the offensive lineman across from you, the backfield set, the depth all of the little things that go into it. As he gets more experience and more plays in there, he is going to see that. As a player he’s got to understand that he’s going to be attacked and that’s one way to try and slow you down.”
From other positions that the Chiefs are looking into has been the special teams. There has been three players that each of the staff have looked at, but hasn’t picked a candidate just yet. De’Anthony Thomas, Frankie Hammond Jr. Frank, and Kyle Williams are the top prospects the Chiefs are looking into and will be looked at in this week’s game.
In the next couple of weeks there will be many cuts made, but like any other team the chiefs are looking for potential to add to their depth charts and someone to fill in their gaps that they have lacked in.
