Staff writer Lyle Graversen weighs in with his gut reactions after a recent visit to Chiefs training camp in St. Joe.
This past Friday, I made my annual pilgrimage up to St. Joseph, Missouri for Kansas City Chiefs training camp. When I first started going to camp during the Todd Haley era, there wasn’t the massive amount of camp reports that you can find online like there is today. My first few years of going to camp, I tried to report back anything and everything that I saw on as many players as possible.
Over the years I’ve learned that that kind of general camp report is now easily available to anyone that wants it. “This player made a great catch. This player had a good day, etc.” So the past few years I’ve gone to camp with a few specific players that I wanted to watch in-depth and report back on. Please keep in mind, this is one practice. Yes, I watched these players in-depth, but they could have just been having a good or bad day. The sample size is small. I still came away with some strong impressions.
Before I get to which players I focused on, let me put in a plug for anyone that hasn’t made it to training camp before. You should really try it. The up close look at these players you’ve only seen in games is well worth the trip. Not only can you get a look at how your favorite players look for yourself but its fun to see them interact in ways you just don’t get at games.
I’ll give you an example.
Towards the end of practice on Friday, as most fans were beginning to gather over by the hill where the players walk back after practice to get autographs, I (along with my dad and step-brother) went all the way to the other far end of the practice fields where the quarterbacks were ending their day by doing accuracy throws trying to get the ball into little openings in a net that was rolled out onto the practice field. This didn’t really show me anything that will carry over to game days, but watching the four quarterbacks laugh and talk smack to each other as they kept score of who was getting the most in was great. Things like this make you feel like you’re getting a behind-the-scenes look at your favorite team.
If that doesn’t sell you on the camp experience on its own, I always throw in a Kansas City BBQ stop for lunch after camp is over. This year it was Arthur Bryant’s for me. (Side note: If you’ve never had the sausage at Bryant’s you need to get on that. They slice it like a deli meat and put it on bread and, for my money, it may be the most underrated KC BBQ menu item.)
Anyway, back to football.
These are the players I decided to focus on while at camp:
- Patrick Mahomes
- Tanoh Kpassagnon
- Kareem Hunt
- Bryan Witzmann
Then if I was able to watch anything else in addition to those four, I wanted to check out the competition at wide receiver and tight end.
I think I’ll start there and work my way up the list to Mahomes.