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Kansas City Chiefs: Early position impressions from training camp

By Lyle Graversen

SAINT JOSEPH, MO - JULY 31: The team runs drills during Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp on July 31, 2011 in Saint Joseph, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
SAINT JOSEPH, MO - JULY 31: The team runs drills during Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp on July 31, 2011 in Saint Joseph, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /
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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – NOVEMBER 19: Cameron Erving
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – NOVEMBER 19: Cameron Erving /

The Offensive Line

* Eric Fisher at left tackle, Mitchell Schwartz at right tackle, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif at right guard and 100% locked in to start in their respective spots. To be honest, I didn’t watch them much at all but what I did see their play seemed in line with what we came to expect from them last season.

* Mitch Morse split time with Cam Erving at center with the first team on Friday and then worked exclusively with the first team on Saturday. I have a hard time believing that he won’t be the first team center assuming he’s healthy and he looked healthy to me when I watched him in camp.

* Left guard is where things might be worth keeping an eye on. I went into camp expecting a battle between Parker Ehinger and the Canadian undrafted rookie Ryan Hunter. However, Ehinger goy all the work at left guard on both Thursday and Friday (while Erving was rotating at center with Morse) and then it was Erving that played exclusively at left guard on both Saturday and Sunday. Erving has clearly done enough to impress the coaching staff to give him a chance to earn a starting job. When I watched him in camp on Friday (at center) and Saturday (at guard) he was…..fine. I didn’t see him get beat badly but I didn’t see him do a lot to move defenders out of the way either. The same could be said for Ehinger as well. He looked better on Saturday going against the second string, but that is to be expected.

* Ryan Hunter was another guy I kept a close eye on. He certainly didn’t look bad but he didn’t do anything to make me say “he needs to be given the chance to start!” either. I definitely will keep an eye on him in the preseason games to see if he does anything to sell me on him further.

* Kahlil McKenzie has huge tree trunk legs and when he gets his anchor set he’s a hard guy to move. You can see why the Chiefs thought he should be an offensive lineman. That having been said, his technique needs a LOT of work and while I’ll keep a close eye on him in the preseason I just don’t see him realistically contributing for a year or two.

* Fisher, Schwartz, LDT, Morse, Erving, Ehinger, Hunter, McKenzie, and Bryan Witzmann are probably the only offensive linemen worth paying much attention to in the preseason. I just didn’t see anyone else on the line that stood out and seems very likely to end up on the final 53 man roster. Maybe someone else will catch my eye, but it didn’t happen while I was at camp those two days.

Now let’s talk some defense.

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