Afternoon Practice Update 7/28

From River Falls, Wisconsin

The afternoon was sunny, hot and humid; perfect weather for a training camp practice.  The Chiefs were in shells, meaning shoulder pads, but no football pants.  That did not effect the intensity, as the workout may have been the most physical of camp so far.

And since it was the seventh practice of camp, some bumps and bruises are starting to show up.  Missing completely from the practice were LB Derrick Johnson, who left the morning workout with cramps, DEs Tamba Hali and Turk McBride, both with non-serious injuries.  Getting hurt during the workout were LB Napoleon Harris, RT Damion McIntosh and S Jarrad Page.  Harris got dinged in a drill and returned to take some snaps, but that was not with the first team defense.  McIntosh hurt his right knee and missed most of the team work and Page look to have injured either his left knee or thigh breaking up a pass in the end zone.  All of those players walked off the field under their own power.  We’ll find out more tomorrow on whether any of those dings are of the serious nature.

The highlight of the afternoon, and frequently the highlight of camp, was the pass rush-pass protection drill involving the running backs and tight ends against the linebackers.  Generally, it’s an drill that favors the pass rusher, but it shows which backs have the technique and willingness to handle pass protection.  None of the backs were consistently good, which was no surprise.  Jamaal Charles had several nice efforts, before completely whiffing on one rusher.  The highlight was rookie Dantrell Savage, all 5-8 of him, knocking Napoleon Harris to the ground.  He got his helmet right up on his chin and stunned the veteran linebacker.  Also in the drill, LB Demorrio Williams and FB Chris Manderino got  into a pretty healthy pushing match.

When it go to team work, the Chiefs offense had it’s best practice of camp.  In the team run portion of 14 plays, they had five positive runs. But when they went to a full offensive  package, they had eight positive plays in 12 snaps. That included a couple nice runs by Larry Johnson, a nice screen from Tyler Thigpen to FB Oliver  Hoyte and a nice run by Savage.

Things weren’t so good for the offense when they went to the two-minute drill.  Here was the situation: the offense was down by three points, with three timeouts left and the ball at their own 41-yard line to start.  With the first offense under Brodie Croyle, the offense got to the defense’s 22-yard line, but then DE Alfonso Boone blew through RT Barry Richardson for a sack that took the offense out of field goal range.  On the second set of plays with Thigpen at quarterback, he completed only one of five passes, giving up the ball on downs.

Tuesday starts with a special teams practice in the morning and then a full pads session in the afternoon.