BJ Kissel
Chiefs Reporter
The Kansas City Chiefs took the field Friday morning for the second day of training camp.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Patrick Mahomes gave us the entire experience once again.
There are two things that have stood out about Patrick Mahomes’ first two days of training camp.
First, there’s no doubting his natural ability, and not that it hasn’t already been discussed all the time of him going back to his days of tossing it around back in Tyler, Texas, it’s still important to always mention that he’s doing things with his arm talent that aren’t normal—even by NFL quarterback standards.
On Friday morning, Mahomes had a few hookups deep down the field to Tyreek Hill that had the crowd cheering, and there were some intermediate routes mixed in there as well that showed his ability to attack every level of the defense.
But the second thing is that this is still a learning process for him. There’s a lot of hype surrounding him and this offense—particularly because of the moves made this offseason, but in order for that group to reach their potential, they have to work and improve. It doesn’t just happen.
There were some beautiful connections and there were also some misses—whether that’s on the throw or the person running the route—only those on the field know for sure, but the product isn’t finished and nobody should expect it to be at this point.
Here’s what Chiefs’ offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy had to say about Mahomes’ development after practice.
“The generic improvement is what we look for each and every day,” he said. “It’s about the little things. We always want each and every one of our players focusing on the details, mechanics and fundamentals we need to be at our best to help us grow. When we have some growing pains, it’s OK. Sometimes without bad luck, we wouldn’t have any good luck at all.
“[Mahomes] can live and learn and study from learning from the things he didn’t execute the proper way.”
Overall, it was the entire experience Friday at camp for the Chiefs’ offense, and Saturday will be a day to witness because it’s the first day the guys will put the pads on, which is always fun for fans.
2. Parker Ehinger continues to get key reps at a key spot
While there’s still a lot of time between now and the start of the regular season, one of the storylines for the Chiefs’ offense this offseason has been the left guard position.
Last year, the Chiefs had Bryan Witzmann, who is still with the team, and Zach Fulton, who is now with the Houston Texans after signing there as a free agent this offseason, start every game at the position.
But through the first couple of days of training camp, the Chiefs have had former fourth-round pick Parker Ehinger take those reps with the first team at left guard. He started four games at that spot in 2016 before a leg injury in Week 8 against the Indianapolis Colts cost him the rest of that season.
Ehinger did start at right guard in Week 17 last year against the Denver Broncos.
In addition to Witzmann and Ehinger, the Chiefs also have former first-round pick Cam Erving, who has taken some reps at center this offseason as Mitch Morse works his way back from injury, as a guy who could potentially play left guard if needed as well.
And finally, there’s a young guy—Ryan Hunter—the undrafted free agent this year out of Bowling Green, who has impressed thus far as well. He’s currently playing left guard with the second-team offense.
3. Undrafted free agent Byron Pringle makes his second fantastic catch of camp
Speaking of undrafted free agents, Byron Pringle—the former K-State receiver who led the nation last year in average yards-per-catch at 25.2—has made a couple of the best catches of this young camp.
A few days ago before the vets all reported, Pringle did this:https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1d61fb831a.png
And this:
https://twitter.com/chiefsreporter/s...261012992?s=21
It has to be noted that all of this has come without the players being in pads, but that changes Saturday morning with the guys getting back to real football, and we’ll see if Pringle can continue to make these splash plays, which largely defined his game in college.
4. Highlights from the two-minute drill to finish out practice.
There were a handful of plays that stood out during the two-minute drill late in Friday’s practice, and three of them were on the defensive side of the ball.
First, the Chiefs’ second-year edge rusher Tanoh Kpassagnon, who spent last year making the transition to outside linebacker after being a defensive lineman at Villanova, had a nice move that resulted in a sack of Patrick Mahomes on a second-down play during the period (a sack is called when the whistle is blown as quarterbacks aren’t tackled).
It’s a good sign for a player who last took the field against the Broncos in Week 17, when he finished his most-extensive game action of the season with seven tackles, which included three-for-loss, and a couple of sacks.
Veteran cornerback David Amerson (No. 24), who signed as a free agent this offseason, had the second interception of camp (Steve Nelson had the first on Thursday), which came off a Patrick Mahomes’ pass during a broken play in which Mahomes attempted a short pass across the middle during the two-minute drill.
Amerson undercut the throw and picked it off and took it the other way for the defense. It was the only interception of the day.
Another one of the better defensive plays came from cornerback Keith Reaser, who had fantastic coverage on a back-shoulder throw attempt late in practice. It’s one of the tougher routes for a cornerback to cover, and Reaser was all over it.
Reaser, along with teammate Will Redmond, are two young cornerbacks that Chiefs’ general manager Brett Veach mentioned being intrigued with this offseason.
So, those are a couple of guys to watch.
5. Cornerback Kendall Fuller is displaying an ability to make plays.
In addition to the plays mentioned above, the other couple of plays that stood out came from the same guy—Kendall Fuller, who came over this offseason in the trade that sent quarterback Alex Smith over to the Washington Redskins.
Fuller, who was playing inside on the two plays that stood out, broke quickly downhill and was able to dive and deflect the ball in both instances.
He’s showing the ability with the Chiefs that made him arguably the league’s best nickel cornerback last season, per most advanced metric formulas.
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**Official Chiefs 2018 Training Camp Thread**
(https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=316387)