Jun 17, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of the Kansas City Chiefs fields during the Kansas City Chiefs minicamp at University of Kansas Hospital Training Complex. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Football has returned (kind of) and not a moment too soon. Rookies, quarterbacks, and injured players reported for training camp yesterday and had their first practice of the summer today. Afterwords several players were made available to the media. Here is what they had to offer.
(Note: Comments from AA are in italics.)
KYLE WILLIAMS
Q: How did your day one go?
WILLIAMS: “It was good. As a receiving corps, we have to shake off a couple of cobwebs; we haven’t been out here with the team in a while. (There were) a lot of balls on the ground, we have to clean that up. As far as the whole offense, day one, it’s always like this. Overall, I think we did pretty well.”
Q: How important are these three days before the veterans come in?
WILLIAMS: “For a guy in my situation, coming off an ACL (injury), it’s huge. You get to knock those cobwebs off and kind of get back into the swing of things before we really get going. For the young guys, it’s huge; just to be able to get their feet wet a little bit, understand what an NFL training camp is like and move along and get acclimated a little bit before everyone gets here.”
AA: It is going to be interesting to see what the Chiefs decide to do with Williams. He seems like a poor man’s Donnie Avery when healthy, and he does have experience playing with championship level teams. My guess for him is he ends up on the PUP list (physically unable to perform) at the end of training camp.
Q: Is there a lot of opportunity for receivers to get the ball in this offense?
WILLIAMS: “In camp and just in the offense in general – if you’ve ever watched Andy Reid’s offenses back in Philly, you know he throws the ball. He has a lot of activity, as far as inside, outside – he mixes it up a lot. You feel like there is an opportunity there as a receiver and anybody on your offense really, we have a lot of weapons. In order to mix that around, to mix and match, put guys in positions to get the ball. It’s definitely something you want to get involved in.”
Q: What’s different in training camp compared to the work in the offseason?
WILLIAMS: “It’s night and day. You work hard in the offseason and you take it to that limit, but there’s nothing quite like training camp. Going into my fifth one now, it’s the same everywhere. Long days, long practice, long nights. It’s only day one; I don’t want to get into it too much. It’s tough, but it’s something you have to go through in order to get through a season. It’s very valuable for you.”
Q: What don’t you know about this offense yet?
WILLIAMS: “I’ve been watching from the sideline for most of the OTAs. I know pretty much everything in it. I’ve been in the books, so I know what it has to offer. I like it so far.”