Chiefs Training Camp Report: Day 9

Jul 28, 2013; St. Joseph, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyler Shoemaker (14) catches a pass while defended by safety Greg Castillo (45) during training camp at Missouri Western State University. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

We are back with another training camp report from yesterday’s practice. A special thanks to Dustin Frey for taking the time to take notes on the practice and do a writeup for us. If you are going up to camp and would like to provided a practice report to Arrowhead Addict, please email me at patrick.arrowheadaddict@gmail.com. 

Now, on to Dustin’s report. -PA

Hey, Addicts this is Dustin Frey. Today I was very blessed with the opportunity to report my thoughts on what I observed at this morning’s practice. Today was my very first time at training camp and I had a blast. I tried to get around and see everything but with having my three-year old son Lane with me I did miss out on some of the drills. That’s quite all right though because we both had a great time and I still got some good info for you.

Camp started at 8:15 am on the dot. The weather was perfect, it started out partially overcast and turned mostly sunny but never got really hot. It was a bit muggy but I still couldn’t ask for anything better. I am going to break down my thoughts on what I saw by position group.

Since QB is what people are most interested in hearing about I will start there. AS11 (Alex Smith) had what I thought was a really good day. He started the practice off throwing his first couple of passes a bit behind the receivers (they had to slow down a bit to catch them) but after that he looked really good. Towards the begging of practice coach Reid had 11 on 11 with 1s against 1s. That was the only time this happened all practice and it was for just a few plays. It looked like the offense won . AS11 hit DMC (Dexter McCluster) deep over Flowers and Smith for a touchdown. The team worked a lot with 11 on 11 with the offense backed up on the one yard line. Alex looked really good in this portion, though he was going up against the number 2s on defense. He had several nice throws to Travis Kelce and Tony Moeaki, along with a circus catch by Dwayne Bowe but I’ll tell you more about that later.

As they moved on to the red zone work, Alex was on it again. He did have one bad throw across his body that fell short in the dirt but on the next play made up for it with a touchdown pass to Moeaki.

Chase Daniels started off practice pretty bad with his first five or so throws but seemed to calm down and looked decent. He seems pretty locked in on to Devon Wylie, who appears to be his favorite target. He did have some nice work with the 11 on 11 but he seemed a bit inconsistent at times. Tyler Bray and Ricky Stanzi split the third team snaps again and Stanzi, while he had a couple of good plays, looks like the odd man out. Bray didn’t do anything overwhelming but he looked solid and with just two weeks of practice. He is playing better than Stanzi. Bray did show a few flashes and I think this kid can be great.

RB’s: When the offenses started their 11 on 11, they had the big package in, this is where Knile Davis saw most of his work with the first team. While Charles and Davis both swapped plays, it was nice to see JC actually in there. Davis had several nice runs and didn’t put the ball on the ground at all. JC looked amazing like always. He broke two runs for TD’s. With all the reports at the beginning of camp about how they were not running the ball, well today we ran it quite a bit. It seemed to be the perfect mix of run and pass. The young RB’s to me didn’t show much besides Davis. Gray was with the trainers on the other field (not in pads) and Draughn had a couple of good runs but was less than stellar.

WRs: Bowe was Bowe today. He had a good practice. He did have once circus catch where the ball was intentionally thrown behind him (because of where the DB was) he turned and tipped it up to himself and came down with it right at the sideline. He didn’t have one dropped ball today and looks really good this year.One surprising thing I noticed was Bowe lined up quite a bit in the slot today. Baldwin on the other hand had a few good catches but wasn’t getting much separation, not just with 11 on 11 but 7 on 7 as well. It looks as if he is out there going half speed. I still have hope for him, though.

Avery is fast really fast. He had one great catch after burning Sean Smith deep. DMC got a lot of work today in several different spots all over the field. He had some really nice catches all day. It looks as if Coach Reid really figured out how to use him and use him right. I am really excited to see what he does this year. Our young WR’s also had some good work. Wylie looked pretty good but did have one dropped ball that hit him in his hands.

TEs: I don’t think I have one bad thing to say about our “Big Three.” With Kelce and Mo getting most of the first team reps, they both were running great routes and making nice catches. Fasano looked really good as well but had most of his snaps running with the second team today.

OL: These guy looked good today in the 11 on 11 but there were some getting beat on the 1 on 1’s. Albert looked really good I think I only seen him get beat once. Fisher had a really good day in the 11 on 11 portion but when it came to 1 on 1 with Tamba. They were swapping back and forth with each other, it was awesome to see. All in all I am liking what I am seeing out of this group and with time as they gel as a unit, they will just get better. I am concerned with the depth with this unit once you go past our two or three backups as they literally have no experience there.

Defense: Started out slow today but really turned on the pressure towards the end of practice. When the 1s were on the field they seemed to be executing really well. I really like the discipline of this team, Coach Reid has them on the right track. I only saw three movement penalties all practice long. There were a lot of very different formations, some I have never seem before. Coach Sutton has people coming from all over the place. This is an attacking defense and its got me very excited to see it in a game.

DL: The Big uglies up front on D seem to really be getting more of a push up the middle. Poe looked pretty good today but as with all the D line, it’s hard to evaluate since they cannot hit the QB. I had heard a lot about Austen Lane but he really didn’t stand out in practice. The DL did do a very good job at stopping the run. When it came to the 1 on 1’s it was very even OL to DL. I really liked what I saw out of this group.

LBs: Of course we know how DJ, Tamba and Houston are, that’s right awesome. The big thing I wanna talk about and probably the guy I was most impressed with was Nico Johnson. Today, in my opinion, he won the starting job. He started the day working with the 2s and had some very good goal line run stuffs in the 11 on 11 portion. Nico was all over the field you can tell this guy is hungry, he wants the starting spot. He did run some plays with the ones at the end of practice and Jordan was moved to the twos. They LB’s didn’t work much in coverage situations today unless that was the part I missed when I took my son to the bathroom.

DBs: There was a lot going on in the secondary, with all the different formations we were in a lot of the time our DBs were really close to the line. Of course Flowers had a couple of good pass break ups and looked as good as always. Sean Smith did get beat a few times but he as well had some good pass defenses. Berry continued having some of his problems covering TE’s, he got beat once by Kelce and it didn’t look pretty but he also had some nice plays in coverage. I hope Lewis can stay healthy this year this guy can play some ball, he had a really good day. The guy I was most impressed with though was Tysyn Hartman he was all over the field he will be the primary S back up.

All in all I think it was a very good practice. The offense and defense seemed to trade blows and at the end of the day came out equal. There are places were we still do need a lot of work but I’m sure Coach Reid will have them ready. I know its only practice and the ones are going against the twos, there were a lot of guys fighting for starting jobs stepping up and making plays. the competition is really high in camp this year, they keep pushing each other and pushing each other every play. I just want to thank Paddy for letting me share my thought on camp. Like Always GO CHIEFS.