Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp: Stock Up, Stock Down

Stock Up: Allen Bailey
Stock Down: Vance Walker

Before training camp began I would have bet a reasonable amount of money that Walker would be the guy that replaced Tyson Jackson in the starting base defense. Walker was a solid starter in Oakland that appeared to offer more pass rush upside than Bailey who has been merely a passable role player thus far in his Chiefs career. While I had read that Bailey came into camp beefed up and was the starter as camp got underway, I figured that it was probably just a case of the guy that already knows the system getting the first shot over the guy that was new in town. I figured that Walker would eventually overtake him.

Saturday’s practice now has me rethinking things. First, Bailey does look like a massive human being. You can see him standing next to Dontari Poe in the picture above. When you can stand next to Dontari Poe and still look physically intimidating, that’s saying something. However, the NFL has seen a lot of muscle bound players not produce on the field so that alone doesn’t guarantee anything. That’s why I went out of my way to watch both Bailey and Walker.

Again, I stress this was just one practice, but Bailey was the better looking player all around. He flashed great power and was a handful for the offensive linemen to deal with both in drills and 11 on 11 reps. Walker on the other hand was just another guy out there. He didn’t look bad, but I didn’t see him flash much of anything. If I hadn’t gone out of my way to watch him I probably wouldn’t have noticed him at all. I’ll be watching both of these guys in the preseason games to see if that assessment holds true.