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05-05-2011 12:32 PM |
Matt Cassel invites teammates to crash on his couch in Kansas City
Posted by Michael David Smith on May 5, 2011, 2:29 PM EDT
Just as Saints quarterback Drew Brees is picking up the tab for getting the whole team together to work out in New Orleans, Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel is telling teammates they have a place to stay if they come to Kansas City for team activities.
Cassel told the Kansas City Star that he has reached out to receiver Jonathan Baldwin, the Chiefs’ first-round draft pick, and quarterback Ricky Stanzi, a fifth-round pick, and invited them to come to Kansas City and get to work.
“We’re making arrangements trying to get them out here as well, even if they have to come out and stay with me for a few days,” Cassel said. “I told [Baldwin] I’m excited he’s with us. I told him to get settled and let everything kind of sink in and then get out here and start to get to work. That’s going to be the biggest challenge is getting some of those younger guys up to speed because they’re not going to be able to have the coaching and the extra time at the facility to go through the playbook. So they’ll have to rely on myself and some of the other leaders as well.”
The Chiefs haven’t had the kind of turnout that the Saints had, with 37 players showing up for the first day of the Brees-led activities, but Cassel says he spent four hours with new offensive coordinator Bill Muir and new quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn on Friday during the brief time when the lockout was lifted, and that he’s now passing along that coaching with a few teammates at a time.
“I’ll usually put together a small group of guys and go out on the field to do some things,” Cassel said. “Right now, it’s a little awkward because not everybody’s in town. So what I’m going to try to do is to get people to come back to town and get us really in the full swing of things and have everybody working out here. We’re going to try to get a larger group of guys. We’ve had guys who have flown in, and they’ve stayed with me for a few days and we’ve gone out and done some field work and some throwing. That’s been good for us to get that one-on-one time.”
And with Cassel’s offer of a place to stay, that one-on-one time extends beyond the practice field.
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