4 takeaways from Day 2 of Chiefs training camp

The second day of Kansas City Chiefs training camp is officially in the books. The team managed a successful practice, despite some wet conditions ahead of camp’s start time out in St. Joseph, Missouri at Missouri Western State University.

The team continues to go through padless practices during the contact integration period. Even without pads, there are plenty of things to take away from these early practice sessions. It gives you a chance to get a look at the ground that has been gained since the entire team began working together back during OTAs.

Here are three things that we’re taking away after Day 2 at training camp:

JuJu Smith-Schuster stacks good days

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

JuJu Smith-Schuster was one of the standouts on Day 1 of training camp practices and he continued to shine on Day 2.

“Oh my gosh, just the amount routes here, I think I’ve run more routes here than my previous offense,” Smith-Schuster said after practice on Wednesday. “Being all over the field, being able to play inside or outside — and that’s for everybody. You see MVS (Marquez Valdes-Scantling) play inside or outside, you see Mecole (Hardman) play inside or outside, Skyy (Moore). You have so many guys playing different positions, it’s just nice. Today was just the like first taste of what I’ve got to show.”

Smith-Schuster was right about that too. He was open on a number of different plays during Thursday’s practice session and seemed to be Patrick Mahomes’ go-to target often. He again had the play of the day with a deep catch for a touchdown, this time against rookie CB Joshua Williams on what would have been a free-play due to an offsides call on DE Frank Clark.

At this rate, Smith-Schuster looks to be Mahomes’ most trusted target outside of TE Travis Kelce.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Skyy Moore enter the show

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

While Smith-Schuster stole the show, two other receivers also had strong performances during the second day of camp.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling looked like the guy through most of OTAs and mandatory minicamp, but he didn’t get much going on Day 1. On Thursday, he was quite active during practice, with standout plays in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 team drills. He caught a contested touchdown over Trent McDuffie in the corner of the endzone during 7-on-7 drills.

He also had two nice catches across the middle of the field in 11-on-11 drills.

Rookie WR Skyy Moore continues to get most of his work with the second-team offense, but he did get a few snaps with the first-team. While he wasn’t targeted often on Thursday, he did get open a fair amount during team drills.

Steve Spagnuolo still preaching patience as his defense comes together

David Eulitt/Getty Images

Steve Spagnuolo continues to temper expectations for his young defense. He anticipated growing pains early on this offseason and after a few practices at training camp, he still thinks it’ll take some time for things to come together on the defensive side of the ball. One reason is simply because of the sheer number of younger players taking starting snaps. At one point during Thursday’s practice, the defense featured three rookie starters in Trent McDuffie, Joshua Williams, Bryan Cook and George Karlaftis.

“(We’re) a little young and a little inexperienced,” Spagnuolo said. “But I think we’ve got some good options. I think this is going to be one of those years where it’s going to take us 3, 4, or 5 games — hopefully, as we win — where we figure out where everybody goes, who should be doing this and who should be playing. I think it’s just one of those years, with all the new faces.”

Spagnuolo is throwing a lot at all of his players right now and seeing what they can digest. Eventually, he says they’ll pull back some and have a more focused approach with game-planning and the like. But for now, he wants to see what his players are capable of.

“This is what we’re doing right now,” Spagnuolo explained. “We’re going to throw most everything at them and find out what this group can do. And then we’re going to go from there. That’s what we’re going to end up doing. At some point, you’re asking if it is going to scale back. At some point, it almost has to. That’s typical of any year. Training camp, you get it all in, so that when you want to go back in Game 7 and pick something out that you worked in training camp, it’s not brand new. So these guys, they do have to fight through some volume right now.”

Elijah Lee making his presence felt as third linebacker

Jason Miller/Getty Images

To the surprise of many Chiefs fans, free agent LB Elijah Lee has been a starter in the team’s base defense over rookie third-round draft pick Leo Chenal. The former seventh-round draft pick by the Minnesota Vikings is a Blue Springs, Missouri native and attended K-State during his college years.

On Thursday, we got a glimpse of why Lee is starting alongside Nick Bolton and Willie Gay Jr. Lee had a standout play during 7-on-7 drills, stripping the football from a K.C. ball-carrier and forcing a fumble before the whistle blew. Others had given up on the play, but Lee played through the whistle as he should have. Plays like that seem to be the difference for the veteran right now and could prove to be his path to the 53-man roster.

1

1

Story originally appeared on Chiefs Wire