Mini-Camp Practice #1 Report

From the Truman Sports Complex

With the exception of two guys wearing zebra shirts it was pretty hard to tell the difference between the 12 Chiefs OTA sessions and the first practice of the club’s three-day mini-camp that went down Friday morning at the team’s facility.

A pair of active NFL officials Tom Quick and David Oliver were on the field to help out as 86 of 87 players took part in the 90-minute session. As always, the only guy missing was restricted free agent S Jarrad Page who has not signed his tender offer.

Quick and Oliver will be on the field all weekend and will also be in meetings with players, watching tape and providing input.

“It’s an opportunity for us to learn a little bit,” said Chiefs head coach Todd Haley. “They are going to help explain and detail from their perspective. It’s an effort to try to educate, learn and eliminate penalties.”

The focus of this first mini-camp practice was review, as better than 90 percent of what the Chiefs worked on Friday morning they’ve done before. The practice plan was very basic on both sides of the ball, with the only difference from the OTAs being two periods for the special teams and some extra plays of team work.

“That gives us a little more time to evaluate some of the guys that we didn’t get to see quite as much of in the OTAs,” said Haley. “We also had some one-on-ones there with the O-Line and D-Line and this afternoon we’ll have the receivers and DBs go against each other.”

Some Friday morning mini-camp observations:

• QB Brodie Croyle took part in some of the position work and the 7-on-7 passing drill, but did not take any snaps in team work. He’s still coming back from the injury to his right index finger that he suffered two weeks ago.
• Not practicing was a familiar group of names: WR Quinten Lawrence, WR Lance Long, CB Brandon Flowers, RB Jamaal Charles and TE Brad Cottam.
• Offensively, the Chiefs were very, very basic in this practice, as most of the throws from the quarterbacks were within five yards of the line of scrimmage. They did finish with a flea-flicker on a double reverse pitch back to QB Matt Cassel whose deep throw to WR Dwayne Bowe fell incomplete. Maybe the only other deep throw of the morning was a Matt Gutierrez to Jeremy Horne pass that Horne could not pull in for the completion.
• The No. 1 defense had Demorrio Williams and Corey Mays at inside linebacker and Jon McGraw back at safety with Eric Berry.
• In their special teams segments the Chiefs worked on their punt protection and the transition to punt coverage.
• Canadian LB Cory Greenwood worked as the second-team long snapper in the punt situations.
• RB Kestahn Moore had a nice run again; it seems like at least once a practice he’ll rip off a nice play.
• Rookie TE Tony Moeaki had a nice catch on a drag route underneath the deep secondary.
• For the first time in the off-season, defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel’s voice was heard, as he was in DE Alex Magee’s ear at one point.
• Weather conditions were hot and muggy – very muggy – although a heavy overcast kept the sun covered.