NFL Almanac – 5/17

Chiefs – signed FB Toben Opurum; moved OL Lucas Patterson from waived/injured to reserve/injured when he cleared waivers.

2013 draft choices signed

• Atlanta – signed DE Malliciah Goodman, 4th-round, pick #127; DE Stansly Maponga, 5th-round, pick #153; S Zeke Motta, 7th-round, pick #244.
• Chicago – signed G Kyle Long, 1st-round, pick #20.
• Miami – signed TE Dion Sims, 4th-round, pick #106; RB Mike Gillislee, 5th-round, pick #164.
• New England – signed LB Jamie Collins, 2nd-round, pick #52.
• Washington – signed CB David Amerson, 2nd-round, pick #51; S Phillip Thomas, 4th-round, pick #119. …Read More!

How Things Are Different With Reid/Dorsey

People ask all the time – how are things different around the Chiefs now that the Pioli Iron Curtain has left the building?

Here’s just one example that came up last weekend when Andy Reid held his rookie mini-camp. On Friday evening, a dinner was held for the players attending and joining them were the Chiefs Ambassadors, a group of former players that was created back in the 1990s at the urging of Carl Peterson and Marty Schottenheimer. On the left, that’s rookie free agent OLB Josh Martin from Columbia University talking with Hall of Fame OLB Bobby Bell.

Peterson and Schottenheimer wanted the current players to have a connection with the history of the team, especially those former Chiefs that were living in the Kansas City area. When Dick Vermeil was head coach, the Ambassadors would bring pizza to the stadium after practice one day a week; they knew that nothing was as enticing to a player after practice than food.

Photo by K.C. Chiefs

When Scott Pioli took over in 2009, one of the early changes he made was to marginalize the Ambassadors. They were no longer welcome at practice or in the locker room. Pizza was out. Like just about everyone else that had dealings with the Chiefs organization B.P. (before Pioli), the former players were shutout. The door was closed and locked and alumni were not given a key.

Just a few months into their tenure, Reid and GM John Dorsey have changed that approach and the rookie dinner last Friday night is an example.

Take a look and see how many former Chiefs players are in the picture, breaking bread with this year’s rookies:

…Read More!

Chiefs Add Opurum

 

Nearly a week after his participation as a tryout during the Chiefs rookie mini-camp last weekend, Kansas FB Toben Opurum signed with the team.

The 6-1, 250-pound native of Texas played defensive end and linebacker last season with the Jayhawks. Opurum was a running back in his first season on the field for KU in 2009, running for 554 yards on 133 carries and 9 scores.

His signing now gives the Chiefs 3 fullbacks on the roster, joining draft choice Braden Wilson and trade pick-up Anthony Sherman.

The Chiefs now have 89 players listed on their roster, with the NFL limit right now at 90 players. But four draft choices remain unsigned, so they don’t count against the 90-total just yet. First pick OT Eric Fisher, 3rd-round choice TE Travis Kelce, 4th-round selection LB Nico Johnson and 5th-round DB Sanford Commings have not yet been announced as signed.

OTA #3 Practice Report – 5/16

From the Truman Sports Complex

On the first day of OTA workouts on Tuesday, the Chiefs offense spent time stopping and re-huddling when players lined up in wrong spots, or play calls were jumbled in translation from play-caller to quarterback to the players in the huddle. It made for a very inefficient performance.

On Thursday, with the third and final OTA practice of this week, the offense went much smoother. Even the introduction of loud music in offensive segments did not cause much in the way of problems for the Chiefs offense. Progress was made.

“It was a good first week,” said head coach Andy Reid. “The guys got to see the improvement that they made through the week. Today, I thought was better, smoother operation on offense.

“Then our defense was flying around and doing what they can do. Coverage-wise, I think they’re doing a great job with that. We’re not in pads, so we’re looking forward to doing that once we get to training camp. For right now, this is good; this is good for everybody to learn the system.”

Reid was quick to remind the media horde that this was the middle of May; there’s a lot of football to be coached and practiced before they start keeping score.

“Do we have a long way to go? Yeah we have a long way to go, but we’re taking strides in the right direction,” Reid said. “These guys got better every day they had a chance to come out here. They weren’t taking steps back, they were steps forward. We’ll keep doing that.” …Read More!

NFL Almanac – 5/16

Chiefs – released G Luke Patterson (injured); announced hiring of Will Lewis as director of pro scouting, Marvin Allen as director of college scouting, Randy Ball as pro scouting assistant, Terry Koziol as area scout. They promoted Mike Borgonzi to assistant director of pro scouting, Dom Green to assistant director of college scouting, Brett Veach to pro and college personnel analyst and Ryan Poles to college coordinator. All will work under Chris Ballard, hired two weeks ago as director of player personnel.

2013 draft picks signed

• Atlanta – signed S Kemal Ishmael, 7th-round, pick #243.
• Houston – signed LB Trevardo Williams, 4th-round, pick #124.
• New England – signed CB Logan Ryan, 3rd-round, pick #83.
• Pittsburgh – signed S Shamarko Thomas, 4th-round, pick #111.
• Seattle – signed RB Spencer Ware, 6th-round, pick #194.
• Washington – signed RB Jawan Jamison, 7th-round, pick #228. …Read More!

Dorsey Revamps Player Personnel Department

From the Truman Sports Complex

Even as he was evaluating players for the 2013 NFL Draft, John Dorsey was also working on evaluating scouts for the 2013 Chiefs player personnel department.

On Thursday, the Chiefs formally announced some of the moves that he’s made in scouting. First it was the hire of Chris Ballard as director of player personnel. He’s coming over from the Chicago Bears where he was the director of pro scouting. We told you last week about the hiring of Marvin Allen as the team’s director of college scouting. Allen joins the Chiefs after spending the last few years in Atlanta.

Dorsey hired Will Lewis to be the team’s director of pro scouting. Lewis has been vice president of football operations for the Seattle Seahawks the past three seasons and has worked with Dorsey before in Green Bay and Seattle.

Also added the Chiefs employee ranks was former Missouri State head coach Randy Ball as pro scouting assistant. Ball spent seven seasons as head coach of the Bears football program going 34-42. His brother Russ Ball was part of Marty Schottenheimer’s staff with the Chiefs and is now in Green Bay where he’s the vice president of football administration.

Trey Koziol was hired as an area scout, coming over from the Tennessee Titans where he’s worked for the last five seasons as a pro scout.

The team also finally announced the hiring of Brett Veach to a position as pro and college personnel analyst. As we told you some time ago, Veach came over from the Eagles.

Three members of the personnel department were retained in new positions as Mike Borgonzi was named assistant director of pro scouting, Dom Green was named assistant director of college scouting and Ryan Poles was named college coordinator.

Fred White RIP

It was 25 years ago – can it really be that long! – that I got to spend a weekend with Fred White.

I arrived in Kansas City in 1981 and Fred was already established in town as part of the radio broadcast crew for the Royals. Since my assignment at the time for the Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times was largely the Chiefs, I never spent much time around the Royals, covering only a few games as a fill-in during the football off-season. Fred was always affable and introduced himself, but our conversations were limited.

Until the winter of 1988. The NCAA Final Four was headed for Kemper Arena that year and my assignment starting on October 15, 1987 through the championship game was to cover the entire world of college basketball outside of the Big Eight Conference. It meant a lot of travel, to all parts of the country, and all sorts of basketball environments. Because that was the 50th Final Four, there were all sorts of historical stories as well and that was the chance of a lifetime. I spent three hours with John Wooden one day in his home, another three hours with Hank Iba in his home in Stillwater, an evening with Jerry Tarkanian in a California hotel suite watching NBA basketball, a 6 a.m. practice with John Chaney and his Temple Owls and many more memories for a lifetime. …Read More!

Answer Bob #4 5-15

Last batch of answers – thanks for your questions and readership.

Donald says – Bob, would you be willing to put together a “Mock Roster” for the 2013 season at this point or maybe after a few OTA’s when the rookies have had a chance to work with the vet’s, say the end of May? Thanks.

Bob says – Donald, give me another week; that would be four more practices and I’ll do an early guess on the roster. Look for it on say May 24/25.

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David says – The Chiefs may not have RG III, but I do have a question about QB III – namely, how do you see the competition shaping up for the #3 QB slot? Given Stanzi’s lack of performance to date, it seems to me reasonably likely we see Bray and Crist fighting it out for the #3 and practice squad QB slots, and Stanzi seeking employment elsewhere.

Bob says – David, I’m on record saying I think Tyler Bray will end up being No. 3. Dayne Crist signed on Wednesday with Baltimore. Stanzi hasn’t shown us anything, but he hasn’t had a chance to play. That two different coaching staffs (Haley and Crennel) did not think he was ready to play is a pretty big indictment in this day and age where quarterbacks play quickly coming out of college. …Read More!

NFL Almanac – 5/15

2013 draft picks signed

• Chiefs – signed FB Braden Wilson, 4th-round, pick #204.
  
• Buffalo – signed LB Kiko Alonso, 2nd-round, pick #46.
  
• Dallas – signed DB B.W Webb, 4th-round, pick #114.
  
• Minnesota – signed P Jeff Locke, 5th-round, pick #155; G
  Jeff Baca, 6th-round, pick #196; G
  Travis Bond, 7th-round, pick #214.
  
• Tampa Bay – signed DT Akeem Spence, 4th-round, pick #100.
  
• Washington – signed RB Chris Thompson, 5th-round, pick #154. …Read More!

OTA #2 Practice Report – 5-15

From the Truman Sports Complex

It was a day for the defense on Wednesday in the second OTA session of the Chiefs off-season.

While the offense stumbled around at times and was not very efficient, defensive coordinator Bob Sutton turned up the heat and sent some extra rushers at quarterbacks Alex Smith (left with QB coach Matt Nagy), Chase Daniel, Ricky Stanzi and Tyler Bray. It had the desired effect as linebackers, safeties and cornerbacks were able to swoop free and continually pressure the passer.

It’s all part of the defensive package this year and CB Brandon Flowers loves the idea.

“It’s an aggressive defense,” said Flowers. “We are doing a lot of different things to get after the quarterback. The key is we are going to try to confuse them as to who might be coming and when.”

When the team’s offense and defense came together late in practice there was a six play span where Flowers, LB Derrick Johnson, LB Akeem Jordan and LB Justin Houston all would have had sacks. Only one of those four plays was Smith able to get out of the pocket and find scrambling room. …Read More!