OTA #10 Report
From the Truman Sports Complex
The defense again held the upper hand in the Chiefs 10th practice session of the off-season Monday morning at the team’s facility.
It was late last week in the OTAs that the defense started to make some plays and that continued in the 90 minutes of work that went down to start the week. Romeo Crennel’s unit had a pair of interceptions, with CB Travis Daniels and FS Kendrick Lewis grabbing the passes.
Overall in the 7-on-7 passing drill and team work portions of the practice, Chiefs passers were a combined 15 of 30 attempts with the two picks. Defensive backs were breaking up passes all through the session.
“We had been making good progress as a group in the passing game until today,” said head coach Todd Haley. “We hit a little bit of a rough patch so to speak, so it will be good to see how they bounce back tomorrow.”
Under cloudy skies, the Chiefs had 85 of their 87 players on the field. Taking part was newly signed TE Cody Slate, who was wearing No. 80. Missing were a pair of safeties: Jarrad Page and DaJuan Morgan. Page has missed all of the off-season work as an unsigned restricted free agent. Haley said Morgan was absent due to a personal issue.
The session was the first of eight practices the Chiefs will have in the next seven days. They’ll have OTA sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Friday kick off a three-day, five-practice mini-camp that will run through Sunday.
“This will be a concentrated week for us,” said Haley. “It will somewhat simulate training camp, especially on the weekend with the two practices on Friday and Saturday. It’s a big week for us.”
Observations from OTA #10:
- Fifth-round draft choice Kendrick Lewis was running with the No. 1 offense, replacing Jon McGraw and working next to fellow rookie Eric Berry. Again, it’s too early in the process to say there was anything definitive in the move and whether it was a reward or just a coaching shuffle of the roster. Lewis looked very much at home back there with Berry and grabbed an INT and knocked down another pass.
- Derrick Johnson and Jovan Belcher continued to run with the first-team defense.
- Here’s the No. 1 defense for this week: Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson at DE, Ron Edwards at NT, Mike Vrabel and Tamba Hali at OLB, Johnson and Belcher at ILB, Maurice Leggett and Brandon Carr at CB and Lewis and Berry.
- When the No. 1 defense went to the nickel, Jackson and Edwards come out and DE Wallace Gilberry and rookie CB Javier Arenas come in. On Monday they showed their dime defense for the first time, with Belcher coming off and CB Travis Daniels coming onto the field.
- Offensively, the Chiefs worked a bit on their no-huddle “Red Ball” offense to mixed results. QB Matt Cassel was 3 of 5 throwing the ball, including a nice hookup with WR Dwayne Bowe. The first play in that segment was an incompletion when Vrabel did not buy a fake and knocked the pass down.
- QB Brody Croyle did not take part in the session, although he did do some light throwing on the sidelines. It was 10 days ago that he bounced his right hand off a helmet as he followed through on a pass. On Monday, southpaw Tyler Palko seemed to be the No. 2 QB ahead of Matt Gutierrez.
- Returning to practice for the first time since the rookie mini-camp was TE Tony Moeaki.
- Besides Croyle those not practicing were RB Jamaal Charles (shoulder), CB Brandon Flowers (shoulder), TE Brad Cottam (neck), WR Quinten Lawrence (shoulder), WR Lance Long (hamstring), and WR David Grimes (hamstring).
- Dexter McCluster was working with the wide receivers.
- On special teams, the Chiefs worked on punt protection and coverage. The No. 1 punt team lined up with Donald Washington and Maurice Leggett as the flyers, Jon McGraw as the personal protector and then across the front from left to right it was Jackie Battle, Andy Studebacker, Jovan Belcher, Thomas Gafford, David Herron, Corey Mays and Tim Castille.
How did TM look?
I don’t know whether to be optimistic, or bummed! A good day for our defense, but the passing game went backwards. I hope it is just because we are going to have such a dominating defense, and our Qb’s and WR’s will eat up “normal” defenses! Anyway, another great job, Bob! You are about our only consistent source of info. from the OTA’s. I appreciate your efforts!
thanks bob, nice to hear about lewis. that would be huge if he can be a solid player
[...] Bob Gretz reports that the defense had the advantage over the offense today. There were 2 picks during the 7 on 7 drills, one belonging to rookie Kendrick Lewis and the other to Travis Daniels. [...]
Bob, how about some info about the OL shuffle?
Jon Asamoah showing up anywhere? Haven’t heard his name for ages!
Next – Reshard Langford got high praise when OTA started — but now? Where did he go?
Finally: Shaun Smith at DT: #2? Or someone else? Read on other sites that D. Lokey is getting some reps as well ..
I wouldn’t look TOO much into the offense getting dominated by the D. They are doing 7 on 7 passing drills which means that the DBs know they are passing and playing tighter coverage. And the fact that the DBs are coming up with ints rather than just broken passes means a lot more for our D. Getting a hand on a ball is great but pulling it in for ints is what we need to start doing better to see more wins. I’m more of a glass half empty kind of guy but I really believe this team is showing imporovement and I think we can pull out an 8-8 season which i would be happy with this year.
Good points Beavis
Thanks for the reporting Bob! I’m looking forward to training camp. It would be cool to travel up and see it for a day! It will be a short drive up from here vs. the north woods in River Falls which I never did.
Yea – Beavis
In a game there be a lot of more to do .
I think with this talent and speed , once they start winning ,they are going to be not so easy to deal with .
I hope it’s SEPT. 13 …
In my humble opinion, I hope Kendrick Lewis does break into the starting line-up and that he and Berry end up far surpassing the last safety duo the Chiefs drafted together. I mean, if Page can become a starter after being a 7th rd selection, then Lewis can become a starter being drafted in the 5th. I also hope that DJ and Belcher stay as the starters in the middle.