The Kansas City Chiefs have now reached the halfway point of training camp up in St. Joseph, Missouri. After a great start to camp, the last couple of days have left the Chiefs beset with a bit of the injury bug. Yesterday, it was 2nd year WR Marcus Kemp and rookie DT Derrick Nnadi going down with injuries and today it was starting LT Eric Fisher and starting LG Cam Erving who went down. Andy Reid said after practice that “Fish [Eric Fisher] tweaked his shoulder and Erving [Cam Erving] tweaked his knee a little bit”. Both of those players have been working as starters on the offensive line and if those injuries are serious, those are 2 that could set the Chiefs back a great deal. The left side of the line protects the blind side of the quarterback, and it is essential that those guys get as many reps as they can. With both Fisher and Erving out, right tackle Mitchell Schwartz moved to the left side, 2nd year man Andrew Wylie stepped in at RT, and Bryan Witzmann took reps at LG. We won’t find out any news as to the extent of the injuries until the team re-takes the practice field on Saturday, but needless to say, all eyes will be on that left side of the line and if those guys can get back in at full strength. Friday, the Chiefs have the day off, which hopefully will allow some of these guys to get back healthy. They’ll be back at it again Saturday through next Tuesday before the first preseason game against Houston on August 9th. Other observations of note
- Rookie undrafted free agent WR Byron Pringle from Kansas State is starting to turn some heads in practice. He makes a lot of tough catches and is a good route runner. I’ll be curious to see what he can do next Thursday in game action.
- Rookie Breeland Speaks laid out RB Daryl Williams on a swing route today. Pass fell incomplete, and even though the drill wasn’t “full speed” or “live” Speaks still laid the wood on the tailback. Great hit and got some oohs and ahhs from the crowd.
- Another name rising up is undrafted rookie free agent TE Blake Mack out of Arkansas State. He made about 4 great catches today, including Mahomes’ best throw of the morning – a rocket between 2 defenders for a touchdown.
- Speaking of Mahomes, much has been made of the amount of interceptions that he’s thrown in camp, it’s really not that big of a deal. That’s what practice is for. That said, I’m going to be really curious to see how he handles defensive looks that he may not have seen a lot of in college.
