Kansas City Chiefs: Veterans to Watch

Jul 26, 2014; St. Joseph, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith (11) runs the ball during training camp at Missouri Western State University. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

The Royals are over .500 and in the playoff hunt, and it’s almost August. While that’s surprising yet great for a KC sport fan like myself, more importantly football season is creeping up on us as training camp goes on. With training camp comes more news about our Kansas City Chiefs, which is good news for all of us. I love keeping up with the observations surrounding camp, and the player reactions over social media.

Without rehashing many of the thoughts from Ben Nielsen on Wednesday morning on camp, I am extremely excited to see this Mark Harrison in the preseason. Granted he busted into our eyes mainly off his performance today, our receivers have been heavily scrutinized the entire off-season, and for good reason. The kind of athleticism Harrison exhibited has been lacking from our receivers, and most importantly, he actually CAUGHT passes, which was a rare feat last year at times. Another bright spot from camp reports were the OL and the DL. The big boys up front have looked good on both sides of the ball, which bodes well for the Chiefs.

With the receiver issues I’ve mentioned, Alex Smith will need lots of time to throw, and a solid OL will open up more lanes for JC and Knile Davis. With the DL, besides obviously plugging up all the opposing running lanes, they will need to be able to get after the quarterback while only bringing 4. With Sanders Commings going down yet again and the rest of the secondary looking shaky, we’ll need a ferocious pass rush much like the first half of last season.

While training camp is a great time to check out the new talent, at this point in the season I’m more concerned about the veterans. Nearly all of the media attention is on the new guys. How they are adapting to the speed of the NFL, any issues with learning the playbook, what they are having for breakfast before camp each day. There is no lack of coverage when it comes to the young players, but that leaves lots of questions about our experienced leaders. With that in mind, I decided to take a look at a few familiar names who aren’t getting a ton of attention now, but will play a huge role in the Kansas City Chiefs playing playoff football at the end of the season.