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Know your enemy.Chargers vs. EveryoneComment
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Trey Lance can't even throw a pass to an Asst Coach standing still at 20 yards away with no defenders on the field. One pass I reposted here a tweeted video from first week of camp was shockingly bad. like 10 feet over the coach's head bad.Originally posted by gzubeck View Post
I wouldn't bet on improved OL solving that.“Less is more? NO NO NO - MORE is MORE!”Comment
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Know thy enemy:
From The Athletic
St. JOSEPH, Mo. — In the NFL, gone are the days of grueling two-a-day practices, when players spent just as much time outside in the heat as they did in meetings and film sessions. This year, 25 teams opted to forgo a traditional training camp, choosing to stay home — at practice facilities, home stadiums or sites within 10 miles of headquarters.
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The Kansas City Chiefs are an exception, one of just five teams that conducted camp on a college campus. Everyone in the Chiefs organization — players, coaches and executives — knows that as long as Andy Reid is their coach, the team will always start camp at Missouri Western State, or at least some college.
“I love being up here,” Reid said last month. “I look forward to it.”
Players agree that Reid, a future Hall of Famer at age 65, runs the league’s most difficult camp. Since 2013, when he joined Kansas City after 13 years in Philadelphia, veteran Chiefs players have tried their best to warn rookies and other newcomers about Camp Reid’s rigorous, old-school style.
The fighting Chiefs are going at it in training camp. Is that a good thing?
“How hard could it be?” new left tackle Donovan Smith asked through a smile in June.
Nine weeks later, Smith was still smiling, but he acknowledged his teammates were right: “It’s definitely an adjustment here. We definitely work our tails off.”
Without fail every year, many of those new players, drenched in sweat and near extreme exhaustion, ask a version of the same question: Why does Reid make camp this hard? The answers come through experience.
Matt Nagy, offensive coordinator (seventh camp tour): I’ve heard the war stories of that 1999 camp, Coach’s first year in Philadelphia, from guys like (Eric Bieniemy), Doug Pederson and Brad Childress. I’ve heard there’s never been a camp in the history of the NFL that’s been as hard as that camp. I think Coach kind of liked that.
Khalen Saunders, former defensive tackle (four tours): The first thing that comes to mind is precision and no wasted reps.
Nagy: When (Bienemy) talks about how hard something is, you know it’s hard.
Donovan Smith (first tour): A lot of plays. We run a lot of plays.
Saunders: You’re getting, like, 200 plays a day — and that’s two games worth.
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Blaine Gabbert, quarterback (first tour): It’s an old-school method. It’s refreshing. It’s simple.
Richie James, receiver (first tour): As a receiver, it’s brutal, for sure. You run a lot.
Connor Embree, receivers coach (fifth tour): There’s no easy days. It’s not like other places around the league, where you might be a 10-year vet and get a day off here and there. If you’re healthy, you’re going — and we’re going hard and long.
Drue Tranquill, linebacker (first tour): It’s a lot tougher than the previous four camps I’ve been a part of, for sure. He maximizes every minute of on-field time. The CBA says we get four hours (each day), we’re going to be on the field for exactly four hours.
Mitchell Schwartz, former right tackle (four tours): He has the reps just generally set up a bit different. The first week or two of camp, most coaches have reps more evenly spaced out. He just starts right away — the ones are getting eight reps, the twos are getting four or five reps and the threes are getting two reps. That catches people’s eyes.
Justin Reid, safety (second tour): I came in prepared this year. Last year, that first week or two, was just very fast. It’s mentally challenging. The practices are way faster than any of the games ever are.
Tranquill: He grinds you. Sometimes you just feel like a turtle walking off the field.
Nagy: Last year, (former receiver) JuJu (Smith-Schuster) was laying on the turf in the indoor field and tweeted out, “That’s the hardest practice I’ve ever had.” I was like, “Dude, that’s, like, nothing compared to what you’re about to walk into.”
Dave Toub, special teams coordinator (13th tour): He’s not going to change his ways. You can’t knock it, his success.
Mike DeVito, former defensive end (three tours): He’s accounted for everything. In 2013, when I got there, I knew right away we were going to win. I could see how systematic he was. Everything had a purpose.
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Mark Donovan, team president (16th tour): The process brings him joy.
Tranquill: That picture of the Super Bowl ring is at the start of every single slide of every presentation.
Donovan: With the uniform stuff, you tuck your jersey, there’s no initials, no triple names. You go to just about any other team, it’s like, “If the guy wants something on his jersey, just give it to them to keep them happy.” That’s not how we do things.
DeVito: One of his rules is you cannot put your helmet on the ground. You have to keep your helmet in your hand. I was like, “That just seems so arbitrary.” Then, you found out there was a time in Philly when one of his starting receivers ran a route, went out of bounds and tripped over a helmet and missed games because of it.
Donovan: The first year, before the players came in, he walked around the field. He goes, “Can you come down?” I come down. He goes, “Can you look at our goal post?” I look out. He goes, “Can you imagine a player coming in here and seeing the chipped paint on that goal post? How does that reflect on our team, our organization?” I’m like, “Got it, let’s go paint the goal posts.” He wants the players to know they’re in a first-class organization.
Patrick Mahomes, quarterback (sixth tour): You’ll never know when Coach Reid throws those curveballs. My first year we went into the install (period). I knew the plays, but I got up there, and Coach Reid told Nagy, “Call the play but don’t tell him the formation.” He wanted me to be able to rattle off the formation. It just shocked me. I knew them, but my mind just went completely blank. Ever since then, I’ve always known the formations.
Travis Kelce, tight end (10th tour): It’s not an easy thing to get a bunch of grown men to stay disciplined. The welcome-to-the-league moment with Coach Reid was just that eyebrow he gives you, man. You’re like, “All right, I better pick it up.”
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Donovan: Travis is the guy that’s like, “That (route) won’t fly with Andy. Do it this way.”
Marquez Valdes-Scantling, receiver (second tour): Coach Reid doesn’t have a lot of emotion. If you do get some emotion out of him, it’s one of those, “Oooh, I might’ve messed up, for real.” I have gotten that. It was in the meeting room. It’s not a good feeling.
Schwartz: If he has to criticize you, even in a team setting where he’s showing plays where he has to criticize someone, he’s doing it to teach something to the group.
Saunders: It’s mind-blowing how he says the exact same things, almost like a tape recorder. Then he’s got his catchphrases, the “son-of-a-buck,” “son-on-a-gun” and “doggone it.” We can probably put a money line on which one he’s going to say in the meeting.
Donovan: One of things that’s really powerful about him is (his) father figure (status). You want to do right by your father. When your dad gives you a look, you go, “OK.” I’ve experienced it. For the players, they just want to do right by him.
Some of the most demanding elements of Reid’s camps are the “long drive” team periods, which occur once the novelty of camp has worn off and with the first preseason game still a few days away. The projected starters can be on the field for as many as 20 repetitions in less than 15 minutes.
Jeff Allen, former offensive lineman (four tours): My favorite day in camp was always Day 1 of pads. After that, I just wanted to fast-forward to the season.
Valdes-Scantling: The long-drive drill sucks. It’s going to suck every time we do it — and we do it quite a bit.
Schwartz: It’s definitely weird. It’s one of the only periods in practice that feels somewhat realistic.
Saunders: It’s one of those things where you’re like, “When am I ever going to be in a 17-play drive?” You might never see it. But you might see a 10-play drive. If you’re ready for another seven more plays, that’s why you do it.
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Justin Reid: By the time you’re done running the play, the next ball is already spotted.
Trey Smith, right guard (third tour): That’s where, in my mind, I go into a different place and try to get to know myself. I know it sounds crazy, just verbalizing it. It differentiates yourself, especially at the end of the season. You have to really find who you are as a man.
DeVito: You have to get into that almost zombie mood where you’re just trying to survive. Those shared experiences, when you’re suffering together, is why you go away for camp.
Donovan: I was on the sideline last year. Those receivers get completely gassed. Marquez (Valdes-Scantling) came to the sideline and went down.
Valdes-Scantling: I was frustrated, like, “Why are we doing this stupid sh–?”
Donovan: (Former receiver) Mecole (Hardman) went up to him and goes, “Dude, I know what you’re feeling! You have to get up! You have to do this!” I was like, “Damn!”
George Karlaftis, defensive end (second tour): You feel prepared for that first game.
Trent McDuffie, cornerback (second tour): Being in an uncomfortable state of mind really helps you, especially at the end of the season when you are tired and it’s cold.
Mahomes: You’re thinking the entire time. That puts as much stress on you as the physical toll. He wants to make sure you’re paying attention to the littlest details. He’ll ask you: “What’s the down and distance on that last play?” You’re like, “Man, we’ve ran eight plays in a row; I don’t know.” It’s like second-and-7, and you’re not even thinking about it. You’re thinking about the play and getting everybody lined up. He’ll ask you: ‘How much time was left on the play clock before you snapped it?” He wants to make sure you’re seeing everything the entire time, so when you get to the game, it’s easy.
Keondre Coburn, defensive tackle (first tour): It’s training your mindset to be ready at any moment because you never know what’s going to happen in a game, (when) you won’t be able to get a sub — and you got to play. I love it. I see why they’ve (the Chiefs) been great all these years.
Valdes-Scantling: We’re in the Chargers game (last November), and we’ve got to go 75 yards (in the final two minutes) and score a touchdown. We go down the field (in just six plays) to win the game. Those are the type of moments that the long-drive drill prepares you for.
Tranquill: There’s something in us, as human beings, when we do hard things and put that in our reservoir. It’s about building this foundation so that when we’re in Jacksonville in Week 2, and it’s 90 degrees and 80 percent humidity, we’re able to draw from that well of difficult circumstances.
Saunders: Against the Titans (last November), when we got into overtime, I felt about as fresh as I could. I got a couple stops on Derrick Henry and got a sack. That was probably my best game. That was a time when I was like, “Wow, I’m not tired.”
Schwartz: When you see that backup defensive tackle — who, you’re like, “Damn, I really like this guy; he’s awesome, he gives me good looks and we have a good rapport” — gets in on a critical third down in a game and he gets a sack, you’re more pumped than you ordinarily would be because you have this cool relationship of having gone (against one another) so much in camp.
In a growing trend, 27 teams have scheduled joint practices with another team this year. Thirteen will practice against multiple opponents. Under Reid, the Chiefs have never participated in a joint practice.
Saunders: We’re just hitting each other for two-and-a-half weeks.
Schwartz: Coaches like it because they think it breaks up the monotony of camp and leads to a different level of emotional state. Most players will tell you they hate joint practices. (Reid) trusts us to do the work against each other.
Valdes-Scantling: The hardest part, obviously, is sleeping in a dorm room when you’ve got a Sleep Number bed at home.
James: It makes you uncomfortable. You’re sleeping in a twin bed.
Schwartz: They keep the dorms exceptionally cold. That’s one thing you have to tell the young guys: Bring an extra blanket, which sounds crazy. But it gets frigid in there.
Tom Melvin, tight ends coach (25th tour): (Reid) is somebody who can survive on not a lot of sleep. I can’t do that.
Toub: I hate the dorms. I’m 61 years old living in a concrete block.
Saunders: It definitely brings you back to that college feel. For what (Reid) does and what he’s trying to accomplish, it’s definitely more beneficial to where you can only focus on football.
Schwartz: (Reid) would say, “We want you guys to hang out as much as possible.” You have enough time to hang out with your buddies, whether it’s in your room playing video games, in the meal hall or hanging out after meetings.
Saunders: Me and (former safety) Tyrann Mathieu were just talking about that the other day. I’ve got some unreleased Tyrann Mathieu music on my laptop. I make music and people used to come to my dorm all the time and record stuff until curfew.
Justin Reid: It’s fun playing chess with (guard) Joe Thuney. We’ve got a champion in Drue. I’m going to go challenge him and see if I can take the belt.
Saunders: I like to make all my teammates my friends, even O-linemen. We go against each other every day, but one of my closest friends is (guard Nick) Allegretti, just the camaraderie. That’s probably my favorite part about the Chiefs’ camp.
Justin Reid: I know a lot more guys (personally) on this team, from being here in St. Joe than I did in Houston just because you spend so much time together. There’s a rock-paper-scissors competition going around the locker room.
DeVito: A lot of teams will break camp after the first preseason game. You get the taste of freedom. But Andy brings you back. That, hands down, is the most difficult part. Five more days of suffering.
Brett Veach, general manager (16th tour): That’s the beauty of Coach. Most guys are like, “Camp is over; we just played a game.” Then Coach kicks them in the ass because that’s what they’re going to experience at some point.
Schwartz: Uh … the favorite moment of camp is when you pack up and leave. No one truly enjoys camp.
DeVito: When do you feel comfortable in camp? When that b—- is over. That’s the only time.
Toub: He loves it. He’s not going anywhere. People keep talking about retirement. He loves this. This is his hobby. I do other things. I like to play golf, go fishing. I’m trying to get him to go hunt. He won’t do it. This is all he does: football.
Mahomes: I’ve told guys if you can get through Andy Reid’s camp, then you’re going to be able to get through an NFL season.
DeVito: They have that sign on the wall: Come in as a team, leave as a family. For a lot of teams, that would just be a motto. For Kansas City, that’s real. When I think of those guys that I played with, I love those guys. I hadn’t experienced anything like that. I really believe a major part of that is through the relationships you build during camp. The locker room was our fraternity. That’s hard to do in the NFL, and that’s what I miss the most.Chargers vs. EveryoneComment
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Ive been trying to figure out - what are we looking at here? Is there a hospital story?Originally posted by 21&500 View Post
Does it involve his douchebag brother?
“Less is more? NO NO NO - MORE is MORE!”Comment
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Nice post by Bolt spit baller.
Depressing post where you realize just how far away this organization is.
Kansas City does not have the most talented roster - not by a long shot.
The Chargers are more talented overall, but KC will still win the division .... it kind of makes sense now.
Drue Tranquill, linebacker (first tour): It’s a lot tougher than the previous four camps I’ve been a part of, for sure. He maximizes every minute of on-field time. The CBA says we get four hours (each day), we’re going to be on the field for exactly four hours.
Tranquill: That picture of the Super Bowl ring is at the start of every single slide of every presentation.
Tranquill: There’s something in us, as human beings, when we do hard things and put that in our reservoir. It’s about building this foundation so that when we’re in Jacksonville in Week 2, and it’s 90 degrees and 80 percent humidity, we’re able to draw from that well of difficult circumstances.
And Staley imagines he's building a culture ... one that is all about family and good times.
How much did that serve them when they started their nose dive in Jacksonville?Comment
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Originally posted by powderblueboy View Post
Brandon doesn't want to upset the guys - that would be bad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . didn't Keenan say that this was the easiest camp he's had? Pretty sure that's NOT a good thing. Every coach has their own way of doing things. I'd say Reid's way works . . . . . . . .
Remember losing to KC early last year because Everett was too gassed to run his route? The KC DB wasn't too gassed to run the pick into the end zone . . . . . . . . . I wonder why?Comment
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I'm officially more concerned about O'Connell than JimmyGChargers vs. EveryoneComment
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Andy is a dinosaur. we play modern football.Originally posted by Lefty2SLO View Post“Less is more? NO NO NO - MORE is MORE!”Comment
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Chiefs won the Superbowl with 10 Rookies....
"Locked, Cocked, and ready to Rock!" Jim Harbaugh
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And Andy is winning rings. I don't see anything wrong with having your guys be in great shape.Originally posted by dmac_bolt View Post
Jimmy Johnson once said if they lose a game, it won't be because they are gassed.
Two HCs with multiple SB rings.Comment
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