There have been ten practices through roughly two weeks of Kansas City Chiefs training camp. I was fortunate enough to attend for four days in St. Joe as the Chiefs got into the dog days of camp. This iteration of the team has many questions, but after watching in depth, things are starting to look a bit clearer.
Here are five things I observed.
1. Peter Woods looks the part
Training camp can often be a collage of sparks and hype, but since the pads have come on, first-round defensive lineman Peter Woods has more than looked the part.
The first defensive tackle taken in the 2026 NFL Draft, Woods has shown a blend of explosion and power, making plays throughout camp so far.
After playing at a listed weight under 300 pounds during his final season at Clemson, Woods entered camp weighing roughly 308 to 313 pounds. He has showcased explosion and power this week in practice.
He also showed off mobility that leaves the door wide open for what he can become as a player in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s exotic looks.
Woods has been by far the hottest name in camp since the pads came on during Monday’s sessions, and all eyes will continue to be on him through the remainder of the preseason.
2. The secondary could be a cause for concern
There is plenty of time to right the ship, but the Chiefs’ secondary could be a cause for concern early on in the season. With cornerback Mansoor Delane’s status unclear, and Kristian Fulton and L’Jarius Sneed missing nearly the entire week, the Chiefs’ cornerback unit outside of Nohl Williams struggled. Veteran safeties Chammari Conner and Jaden Hicks also struggled.
The lone bright spots were safety Alohi Gillman, who made a few nice plays, and rookie slot defender Jadon Canady; the first-year player from Oregon earned more playing time with the first team as the week progressed.
3. R Mason Thomas should see more snaps as time goes on
With second-year defensive end Ashton Gillotte missing nearly all of the second week of camp with an injury, the primary workload for the first team went to Felix Anudike-Uzomah, while rookie R Mason Thomas mostly took snaps with the second team and a few rotational situations with the first team.
The team appears to be willing to give Anudike-Uzomah every chance to earn playing time after struggling through the first three seasons of his career, but on Friday during the two-minute drill, it was Thomas who walked on to the field when the first-team defense took on the starting offense.
The two-minute drill can be where games are won and lost, and the team did not hide the fact that the rookie is already one of the defense’s best pass-rush options.
Thomas has looked sharp and has worked to shed the notion that he is an undersized speed-only player.
While the speed rush got him drafted, seeing him play with power has been nice as well and will open up more roles for him as he continues to progress.
It has been quite some time since the Chiefs have had a player with the combination of speed and bend off the edge that Thomas has, and there is a feeling the team could be trying to buy time for him to develop the other aspects of his game before deeming him a full-time starter.
Thomas still has a ways to go, but the ability is flashing, and it feels inevitable that his snap count will increase soon.
4. Kahlil Benson could be doing something remarkable
The team believes in rookie-minicamp tryout signing Kahlil Benson, and that was never more apparent than after a week of playing nearly all right tackle, transitioning inside to right guard after Trey Smith missed Friday and Saturday with a hip injury.
After a week to evaluate his game, nothing was extremely overwhelming, other than he often found himself in the right place at the right time and played with just enough leverage to create movement in the ground game, along with quick enough feet to play tackle.
The decision to slide him over to right guard once Smith was out speaks volumes to how the organization feels about him, and is adding to the likelihood every day that he will see the field frequently in 2026.
5. Kenneth Walker has a mean streak
It’s been hard to miss the Chiefs’ newest free agent addition so far in camp, and on Saturday he was involved in one of the more viral plays camp has seen so far.
I have been traveling to St. Joe to watch the Chiefs practice for over a decade now, and I have never seen this. After further thought, I don’t think I have seen anything quite like this in a lifetime of attending football practices and games.
Sure, this would evoke an ejection in a real game, but Walker appears to have had enough of the shenanigans presented by the defensive players, and after all, this is practice.
Last season, the swagger and confidence many had become accustomed to the Chiefs playing with never showed up, and when it did, there was more of a sense of false bravado than anything.
So far in camp, Walker has been a tone setter and is making his case to become one of the true alpha dogs on a team that is in no short supply of alpha dogs.
Walker carried a large workload on Saturday — much like he did on Wednesday and Friday — and seems on track to be the Chiefs’ workhorse early in the season.
The Chiefs finally got knocked down last year, but the new players clearly have a mindset and attitude to get them back on track to being the hunters once more.
