Amid a retooled roster, the Kansas City Chiefs still have their sights set on the ultimate prize.
To get to the Super Bowl, however, the team will have to navigate through several personnel changes on offense and defense. But the team returns perennial Pro-Bowlers Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones as well as head coach Andy Reid, which should help steady the waters as the team opens training camp Wednesday in St. Joe, Mo.
“I’m very excited to get things going,” Reid said Friday. “There’s some new players on the team, which makes it exciting. It’s not that same group that’s been here probably the last three or four years. There’s been a nice influx of really good football players that we look forward to seeing as things heat up here and the season gets a little closer.”
Chiefs fans have seen what Mahomes and Kelce are capable of, but now they will get to see firsthand what veteran receivers Marquez Valdes-Scantling and JuJu Smith-Schuster can do. Both are bigger targets for Mahomes to throw to, and the Chiefs QB is eager to get started.
“I think we have the right guys in the building,” Mahomes said. “It starts with the coaching staff. We have a coach that’s coached with many a variety of weapons at all his different stops and the offense has always been great.
“We have a lot of great coordinators, great position coaches that will coach their guys up. And then the players. We have a lot of guys that love football and want to come in here and work. And obviously we see stuff on SportsCenter that people are kind of doubting us a little bit and that gives us extra motivation to come out here and play even better than they thought they could because we still want to prove that we’re going to be the prolific offense that we’ve always been since Andy Reid’s been in Kansas City.”
The Chiefs also brought in veteran running back Ronald Jones and re-signed Jerick McKinnon to compete for snaps with Clyde Edwards-Helaire. But the offensive line is in a little bit of flux as right tackle Lucas Niang is on the PUP list and left tackle Orlando Brown isn’t expected in camp anytime soon.
Reid, however, said the Chiefs will keep rolling even without their starting left tackle.
“I would tell you when you miss, you miss,” Reid said of Brown. “It’s hard to make that up. That’s just logic. But to say he doesn’t have a foundation, he has a foundation of the plays that we run and the things we do. But he missed all of OTAs and all of that. So the new stuff that we put in that’s where he’ll have to catch up.”
On defense, the Chiefs will be breaking in new safety Justin Reid as well as first-round picks cornerback Trent McDuffie and defensive end George Karlaftis.
The Chiefs drafted seven players on defense, and Reid believes the young players showed promise during the offseason workouts. But now it’s time to get ready for the season.
“We get a lot of work in,” Reid said of training camp. “The players understand that every play is important and we’re going to go fast. We’re not going to repeat plays. We just don’t do that.
“We’re going to maximize your play. We’re going to make it as much like a game as we can and then we’re going to learn from it if you make a mistake. We’re going to learn from the mistake and try to get better. I think efficiency-wise we get a lot done.”
CEH ADDED TO PUP LIST
The Chiefs on Tuesday placed Edwards-Helaire on the PUP list. He joins cornerback Rashad Fenton, offensive linemen Niang and Prince Tega Wanogho and defensive lineman Cortez Broughton on the list. However, it is believed Edwards-Helaire could only miss a few days.
ROSS ON INJURED RESERVE
The Chiefs placed rookie free agent wide receiver Justyn Ross on injured reserve, ending his season (foot surgery). Ross recently had a procedure to correct a previous surgery he had last season while at Clemson.
“It just wasn’t functioning quite the way (he wanted),” Reid said. “It was bothering him. So it wasn’t working quite the way he wanted. So they went in and redid it and we’re hoping that this works out well but it’s going to take time.”
