What we’re excited to see at Kansas City Chiefs training camp

Since we can’t say “Patrick Mahomes” in this particular exercise, there’s no doubt that my interest is in seeing whether Brett Veach’s radical youth movement on defense will produce the intended results. Derrick Johnson is gone. Tamba Hali is gone. Marcus Peters is gone. Ron Parker and a bevy of familiar faces in the secondary are also out the door.

In their place, Veach has brought in five rounds of defensive rookies to go with linebackers Reggie Ragland and Anthony Hitchens in the middle. Veach cashed in his single biggest asset in Alex Smith, a rarely-available above average starting quarterback, for cornerback Kendall Fuller. Add in other pieces like David Amerson and Xavier Williams and you almost have a brand new defense top to bottom.

What will help is seeing what stalwarts like Justin Houston and Eric Berry have to say about the newer players. How will Bob Sutton employ these new toys? Can the heavier edge rushers in Breeland Speaks and Tanoh Kpassagnon provide the missing punch in the pass rush? And who will step up as a defensive leader now that some longtime faces are gone? This remade unit will, at least, be interesting to watch as they come together. [Matt Conner]