Chiefs finish training camp on Thursday
Aug. 18—The Kansas City Chiefs wrapped up training camp on Thursday with an early practice to close things out.
This training camp, like many others, saw plenty of competition on both sides of the football. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes liked what he saw throughout the course of camp given the team's new-look defense and offense.
"I think you saw offense have good days, you saw defense have good days and that's usually a good sign for a good football team," said Mahomes
It was roughly three weeks of new faces and old faces going to work in St. Joseph. Now, it's back to Kansas City to get prepared for the regular season. Head coach Andy Reid, who enters his 10th season with the team, can felt that this camp bred competitive spirit like his other camps have in the past.
"I thought it was great competition, and really you can break it down by play. They just challenge each other," said Reid.
But first, the Chiefs still have two more preseason games to take care of before their regular season opener against Arizona on Sept. 11. Their next preseason contest will see the Chiefs at Arrowhead for the first time in the 2022 season against the Washington Commanders.
This year's training camp saw the arrival of Carlos Dunlap and Danny Shelton on the defensive. But, it's the newcomers on offense that gained the most attention, specifically the new receivers like Marquez Valdes-Scantling, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Skyy Moore. Mahomes had trained with his new receivers for quite some time in the offseason down in Texas. Now, he's seen some of that hard work come to fruition in camp.
"It was very good for them to kind of get down here, see how we do things and now as we get back to Kansas City and get closer to this season, we'll refine and make sure they're ready to go then," said Mahomes.
The new receiving corp will get another chance to play Saturday's preseason contest. Head coach Andy Reid said that the starters will get to play as much as the first half of the game, but they will do so without Smith-Schuster, who is still dealing with a sore knee that's kept him out of practice since Tuesday.
Wide receiver Mecole Hardman is still dealing with a groin issue he suffered during practice on Wednesday. Reid says Hardman's issue is getting better and that they'll see about playing him on Saturday. Defensive tackle Chris Jones has back spasms that caused him to exit practice early on Wednesday.
The Chiefs will kickoff against Washington for their second preseason game at 3 p.m. Saturday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Jacob Meikel can be reached at jacob.meikel@newspressnow.com.
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