The Kansas City Chiefs’ second full-team practice of training camp took place on a gloomy day in St. Joe, one that turned to a downpour by the time the Chiefs wrapped up practice with punt-team work. The Arrowhead Pride staff had boots on the ground to observe the second of three acclimation-period practices before full pads come on Saturday.
Here’s what to know from Thursday’s practice in St. Joe:
Attendance report
For the second consecutive day, wide receiver Rashee Rice and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed partially participated
in practice due to planned rehabilitation. Defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott continues to be on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, not participating in practice.
Rookie cornerback Mansoor Delane continued to participate in all phases of practice while wearing a yellow, non-contact jersey.
Lineup notes
A shift on the offensive line
After veteran Jaylon Moore played right tackle for every starting snap on Day 1, rookie Kahlil Benson took the reins on Day 2.
“Really hard worker,” Center Creed Humphrey described Benson after practice at the podium. “He’s a very hard worker; you can tell it’s important to him. He shows up every meeting, every walkthrough, every lift, everything with the right mindset.
“He’s a really strong player,” Humphrey went on. “From a physical standpoint. His punching power, things like that, he’s really strong and really technical too. So we’re excited about him.”
While Benson played right tackle with the first team, Moore manned the left tackle spot on the second-team offense while Esa Pole moved from left to right tackle for backup quarterback Justin Fields’ plays.
Second-year left tackle Josh Simmons continued to man the blind side for quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Humphrey also commented on his prospects.
“Josh’s potential is through the roof,” Humphrey said. “If he keeps working the way he is, he’s going to be a very talented player in this league.”
Experimentation on defense
During the first day of practice, safety Christian Roland-Wallace appeared to man the Nickel role the most for the Chiefs’ starting defense. Chamarri Conner has been manning the strong safety spot, alongside veteran free safety Alohi Gilman, but defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo provided some clarity on that spot.
“[Conner] hasn’t played as much Nickel; he’s played more safety, but that’s really to get some of the other guys ready,” Spagnuolo said to reporters after Thursday’s practice. “I think we can always put him back there in a pinch, but this gives him a little bit more time deep that he didn’t have last year. I think we’ll still have some flexibility with him at both positions.”
It speaks to the rotation we saw on Day 2 in practice, where free-agent signing Kader Kohou appeared to man the Nickel role more often than he did on Day 1. In the same breath, rookie Jadon Canady appeared to see more time with the third-team defense than the first-team unit, but was still active, making at least one pass breakup on a route from the slot against the third-team offense.
Third-year safety Jaden Hicks has primarily watched Conner and Gilman work on the Chiefs’ starting defense, getting his reps with the second-team unit — although we haven’t seen any Dime defense from Kansas City in camp yet. Spagnuolo talked about the plan for Hicks.
“Jaden played a lot of different spots last year,” Spagnuolo said. “I told him, back in the OTAs, I’d like to find one that he can just hone in on and master that while we experiment with some of the other guys. He is a guy that we’ve had a little versatility with a year ago or the last two years; that won’t change, we’ll just find out where he’s going to get slotted in.”
Defensive end Ashton Gillotte is one of the patients for Spagnuolo’s defensive experiments. He has been playing a de facto Linebacker role on the ball to present a five-man front for the Chiefs’ defense, but the mad hatter is simply pushing the limits of his group, seeing what he can learn.
“We’re experimenting with a bunch of things,” Spagnuolo said when asked about Gillotte.“We’ll do that with him, (linebacker) [Cooper McDonald]… unfortunately, we know Ethan Downs got hurt; he was another guy.”
“I’d like to be able to see if there’s anybody in the defensive line group that can do other things,” Spagnuolo went on. “Just like… we’d take (former Chiefs linebacker) Leo [Chenal] and put him with the defensive line every once in a while, so this is part of finding the versatility in guys.”
Other notes from practice
Mahomes continued to shake rust off, looking to push the ball downfield more in this practice compared to the first. On one early throw in the seven-on-seven period, Mahomes put up a long ball to wide receiver Xavier Worthy towards the back corner of the end zone that landed in Worthy’s hands, but slightly out of bounds with cornerback Nohl Williams in tight, trailing coverage.
Williams has been in Worthy’s hip pocket constantly through two days of work. On one red-zone pass play, Mahomes worked through his progression to a back-side route, but Williams was there to undercut it and secure an interception.
Worthy and Mahomes found the deep-ball chemistry on one blitz-beating play; Worthy burned Kohou deep out of the slot without safety help, jogging after the catch the rest of the way into the end zone for a big-play touchdown.
Tight end Jared Wiley continues to get a lot of work with the first-team offense, but on one play, he let a pass slip through his grasp, resulting in an interception for Mahomes against the starting defense.
Backup quarterback Justin Fields was on point with his downfield passes on Thursday. One of his only off-target throws was to wide receiver Cyrus Allen, who made a spectacular catch on an in-breaking, intermediate route where the ball was severely behind him.
“He’s eager to learn,” wide receiver Tyquan Thornton said of Allen after practice. “His route running is elusive; he’s very good at the catch point.”
