Chiefs training camp 2015: Justin Houston, Ron Parker impress
The Kansas City Chiefs of their portion training camp of without pads on Sunday, giving the players an easy day to get acclimated one more time. Like Saturday, the Chiefs did plenty of positional drills before breaking into offense vs. defense. This time, the first-teams faced each other, giving us a star-studded drill here and there.
This is what I noticed.
1. Ron Parker has looked great
On Saturday, Parker made a diving, juggling interception of Chase Daniel along the sideline and took it to the house. He nabbed another interception on Sunday, this time being in the right place for a tipped ball after Alex Smith threw high to Jeremy Maclin.
Parker is going to be under the microscope after he signed a five-year, $30 million contract this offseason. The good news is that he has come into camp making plays and appears to be in excellent shape.
2. Justin Houston is Justin Houston
There is nothing that you don’t like when you watch Houston. During the practice, he was doing all the drills faster than the rest of the linebackers, showing off his agility and quickness when the ball is snapped. He was then putting pressure on the quarterback repeatedly, something he will surely do when the pads come on.
The most impressive thing was after the practice. Once everyone had signed autographs, something he did for 20 minutes, he went back onto the field and worked tirelessly against a dummy on using his hands in a pass rush. This is why he’s great.
3. Alex Smith had a shaky day
Yesterday, I lauded Smith for the way that he played. It is only fair to criticize him now after he missed some throws. Smith was consistently throwing high and wide to some of his targets, missing on easy passes. His misses were many times in the direction of Jeremy Maclin.
Smith did have some nice throws, including a gorgeous bomb to Albert Wilson over the outstreched arms of Sean Smith. However, Smith tossed an interception and easily could have thrown a couple more. It’s only the second day of camp, so I wouldn’t be too concerned.
4. Offensive line update
Once again, the offensive line started with Eric Fisher, Ben Grubbs, Eric Kush, Jeff Allen and Donald Stephenson from left to right. This appears to be the lineup that head coach Andy Reid is looking at to open the season against the Houston Texans.
It’s hard to argue that isn’t the best five players at the position.