Practice Report 10/22 Upate

From the Truman Sports Complex

Todd Haley pretty much thought the heavy stuff wasn’t going to come down for quite awhile. So he took his team outside to practice Thursday morning despite a steady rain that had soaked everything and everyone in a matter of minutes.

“I like the rain,” Haley said afterwards. “It was pretty pleasant out there today. These are conditions that we have to play in. Days like today, being a wide receivers coach for so long, you kind of wanted days like this to really concentrate. I loved windy days and rainy days as a receivers coach because it required great concentration to get the job done.

“I thought today was very productive before it was all over. It didn’t start that way, but it ended up pretty good.”

No, at the start there were a lot of dropped passes by receivers. The ball was wet, the receivers’ gloves were wet and the rain was still falling. At one point, Haley pulled all his quarterbacks and receivers together for a huddle. His words could  not be heard but his point was being made very clearly: concentrate.

Luckily there was very little wind and the temperature was not cold. Early forecast for Sunday afternoon is rain and cooler temperatures. Haley did make one concession to the weather conditions – the team was working on their artificial turf field, rather than the grass practice fields.

“It gets you used to the weather on Sunday; it wasn’t that bad,” said  RB Larry Johnson. “That was actually the first time we had used that Astroturf field over there. I was thinking about all  that money gone to waste on a field that’s never been touched. It’s good for us to go out there and be in the rain for a little bit.”

Not taking part in the work was LT Branden Albert, who was still walking and doing some light jogging on the injured left ankle. Haley did  not have an optimistic tone talking about the availability of Albert.

“I feel like having last week under our belt and some guys got play time under their belts, that will help us,” said Haley. “If he’s (Albert) able to go, he’ll go. It might be in a backup role. We’ll see when we get there.”

Is there a chance that Haley might rest Albert this week and with the bye coming up next week, give his big tackle another two weeks of recovery time?

“As I told them all, I need you now, I don’t need you in two weeks,” Haley said.RG Mike Goff was back and taking part in the work, after missing practice on Wednesday to handle personal matters.

Everybody else appeared to be working in the wet session, although the Chiefs listed LG Brian Waters as a limited participant.