Training Camp Practice #20 Report

From St. Joseph, Missouri

At Prattville High School in Alabama and then during his college career with the Crimson Tide at the University of Alabama, Bobby Greenwood played defense. Only defense.

Until Tuesday afternoon’s Chiefs practice at Missouri Western State University. Greenwood was still wearing a jersey with the No. 74, but it was now a white jersey of the offense, not the red jersey of the defense.

Greenwood found out Tuesday that he was going to be an offensive lineman. The Chiefs injury situation along the offensive line was such that they needed a body to help out in practice. He did that a bit in 2009 when he spent the entire season on the Chiefs practice squad. Those guys will play any number of positions for show teams to help the offense or defense.

But this wasn’t show team work on Tuesday. He took snaps in pass protection, dueling with guys that just the day before he was sharing a meeting room with. He took some reps during team work as an offensive tackle.

And as far as the first-year player knows, on Wednesday he’ll still be an offensive lineman.

“They told me to play offensive line, I play offensive line,” Greenwood said. “I talked a little bit with the coaches before practice. Wherever I can get a spot on this team, I’m willing to do it.”

What’s hard to tell at this point is whether Greenwood’s move is just temporary to get through the week. Here’s what’s going on with the line situations:

On Monday, they were down to 10 available blockers by the end of practice. On Tuesday, RG Ryan Lilja and OTs Ryan O’Callaghan and Barry Richardson returned to practice work. Richardson’s snaps were limited however because of his knee injury. So that forced the move of Greenwood to offensive tackle to provide some help.

Again, he did more than that as he handled himself quite well in pass protection. At 278 pounds, he’s a bit under-sized for an NFL offensive tackle, but he showed some quickness and fluidity in blocking his old positional mates like Shaun Smith and Dion Gales.

“Coach (Bill) Muir and coach (Pat) Perles worked with me and really helped me out,” said Greenwood. “They told me offensive line right now. They didn’t tell me anything past that.”

The lone practice of Tuesday came in the coolest conditions the Chiefs have experienced this camp. A heavy overcast kept the sun covered up and a breeze cooled the field. Temps were in the low 80s. The good weather conditions were largely the reason head coach Todd Haley put his team through a practice that exceeded two hours and finished up with an extensive conditioning period at the end.

The players had a chance to get out of that post-practice conditioning run. All K Ryan Succop had to do was make a 50-yard FG, without a defensive rush coming at him. Haley did stand a few feet away from Succop and called timeout at the last moment before the snap. When Succop lined up again, Haley stood close by jingling his change and whistle in his pocket in an attempt to distract Succop.

Who knows whether Haley got to him or not, but Succop was short and right on the 50-yard attempt so he and his teammates had to run.

More observations from the practice:

– The rehab area was far less crowded during Tuesday afternoon’s practice as only three players were held out of all work: QB Brodie Croyle (right arm), G Darryl Harris (left knee) and RB Kestahn Moore with an unknown injury.

– Returning to practice in some form were S Jon McGraw, OLB Mike Vrabel, RG Ryan Lilja, OT Barry Richardson, TE Jake O’Connell and TE Tony Moeaki. McGraw, Richardson and Moeaki were limited in their snaps. The others took a full practice.

– Because of the injury and unknown status of Brodie Croyle for the rest of the week, the Chiefs signed QB Bill Stull. He was with the team for a tryout back in May at their rookie minicamp. Stull was a two-year starter at Pitt.

– To make room for the addition of a new quarterback, the Chiefs released DE Jeffrey Fitzgerald. The undrafted rookie out of Kansas State could come back, but he was having a hard time going forward on the defensive depth chart.

– Here’s how the offensive lines came together for the practice:

• First group – LT Branden Albert, LG Brian Waters, C Casey Wiegmann, RG Ryan Lilja and RT Ryan O’Callaghan.
• Second group – LT Tyler Eastman, LG Ikechuku Ndukwe, C Rudy Niswanger, RG Jon Asamoah and RT Colin Brown.
• Third group – No LT, LG Dan Santucci, C Lemuel Jeanpierre, RG Bobby Greenwood and RT Barry Richardson.

– Chiefs worked long and hard on special teams with their kickoff return unit on Tuesday afternoon. Here’s the No. 1 kick return team, with rookie CB Javier Arenas and WR Terrance Copper the two deep men. Along the front are S Donald Washington, ILB Jovan Belcher, FB Tim Castille, ILB David Herron and CB Mike Richardson. The wedge was RB Jackie Battle, OLB Andy Studebaker, DE Wallace Gilberry and TE Leroy Banks.

– Also returning kickoffs were WR/RB Dexter McCluster and WR Quinten Lawrence.

– As he returned some kicks, Arenas showed again why he’s so good at those duties. He seldom takes a step sideways, and he certainly doesn’t run to the side. He’s a north and south runner, who sees a hole in the coverage, sticks his foot in the ground and takes off.

– During the practice, the Chiefs had some of their linebackers wear the numbers of opposing LBs to help out with the scout team. But the guys wearing No. 56, 95 and 59 were not for this weekend’s second pre-season game against Tampa Bay. Those are the numbers of OLB Shawne Merriman, OLB Shaun Phillips and ILB Brandon Siler of the San Diego Chargers, the Chiefs opening night opponent. It’s always common practice at this point of camp and the pre-season to work in some snaps against the opening day foe.

– The rotation of starters at ILB continued as Derrick Johnson and Jovan Belcher worked with the first team in Tuesday’s session. The day before Demorrio Williams and Corey Mays were with the No. 1 defense.

– Things got a little testy at practice and DE Alex Magee took a swing at OT Colin Brown, who listened to his coaches and did not respond to the provocation.

– Rookie FS Kendrick Lewis is working a lot with the first defense as starter Jon McGraw is limited by injury. Lewis has shown he’s comfortable in the role. He displayed very good vision in Tuesday’s practice, as he broke up a long pass to WR Chris Chambers.

– WR/RB Dexter McCluster got an earful from offensive coordinator Charlie Weis when he ran the wrong pass route on a short yardage play. It’s one of the few visible mental mistakes the rookie has made in camp, despite his moving between different positions.

– Chiefs did some work on kick coverage. Here was the No. 1 until running down under Succop’s kickoffs: CB Travis Daniels, Lawrence, Castille, Belcher, Battle, Copper, Herron, Studebaker, Richardson and SS Eric Berry.

– CB Jackie Bates grabbed an interception during the seven-on-seven drill, catching one of Palko’s passes.

– The Chiefs ran some short-yardage defense. Here’s how the first group lined up: DE Tyson Jackson, DE Shaun Smith, NT Ron Edwards and DE Glenn Dorsey on the line, with Vrabel, Johnson, Belcher and OLB Tamba Hali. In the secondary were Berry, Lewis sand CB Brandon Flowers.