ChiefsPlanet - Chiefs Q&A with HERM EDWARDS

Q: Glenn Dorsey was out on the field today. What’s his status?

HERM EDWARDS: “He’s just doing some individual stuff. We’re bringing him along slow. We really don’t know what’s going to happen this week. We’ll see where he’s at. It’s good to see him out there though.”

Q: But you don’t know if he’s going to do anymore tomorrow though?

EDWARDS: “Nah, he’s day to day.”

Q: How do you feel they looked after the game and after the day off?

EDWARDS: “I thought they were okay. That’s why we went in spiders (pads) and tomorrow we’ll do special teams and then go through a shorter practice in the afternoon. Then we’ll put the pads back on Monday.

“I think it was more of a teaching mode (today). We put in some more things on offense and defense. They reviewed the tape and looked at themselves. There is a lot of improvement but we’ve got to do a lot of things better. I think they know that, especially after they watched the tape.”

Q: Are you done with two-a-days (practices)?

EDWARDS: “Pretty much. Most teams are doing that. You know, with only 80 guys…. Our whole deal from the beginning - and I told the team - was I didn’t know them; I didn’t know these guys. So, we had to do what we had to do as far as getting physical and going two-a-days for a while. As you get to know who they are and what they’re about then you decide how you’re going to train them.

“We’ll be a physical football team. I believe that. I believe the way we go about our business in practice showed up in the (Chicago) game. With that being said, I told them we’ll go pads once in practice the next three or four days. Then in the morning we’ll meet and then we’ll go hard in practice. Now, practice in the afternoon may be a little bit longer but I think it’s the way you’ve got to handle it when you only have 80 guys.”

Q: So you feel pretty good about where you are?

EDWARDS: “The physical part, the physical part, not the mental part. We’ve still got a lot of improvement and we have a lot of young guys making mistakes. Mistakes you can correct, toughness you have to find out about in practice. They proved that and the key was how we played Chicago. That was the key.

“We needed to go hit ‘em and be physical and I thought we played pretty physical.”

Q: Stallings didn’t practice today and what about Napoleon Harris?

EDWARDS: “Knees were sore. Day to day.”

Q: Turk McBride was working at left defensive end today? Is that something you’re going to try?

EDWARDS: “Yeah. He’s a guy who can go both sides and we’re going to give him some reps with the first group and see how that works out. There are a lot of positions still open on this football team, a lot of competition going on. We want to make sure we get the guys at the right positions that want to do it the way we want them to do it. We told them very simply you’ve got to do it the way we want you to do it. If you do it that way, you’ve got a great chance to play for us.”

Q: When you watched the film were there some things you were surprised at, or you liked, or was it worse?

EDWARDS: “There are always some things. You expect certain things out of certain players. Sometimes, especially the veteran guys, you expect to play a certain way. Most of them did okay, but they were a little rusty too. But I thought they did some decent things, some guys I was a little more disappointed than others. I never mention names.”

Q: Did you like how those two-minute drills ended today?

EDWARDS: “If you’re defensive guy. It’s practice and it works that way sometimes. Brodie was trying to throw the ball away and I should have blown the whistle.”

Q: Looking back at the Chicago game are you pretty happy the way you’re offensive line played?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, the first series of 16 plays you’re glad about going 91 yards and overcoming a bunch of third downs. The second or couple of series we didn’t like because they were three-and-outs. We didn’t have very good field position either. We started on the 18 (yard line) and the 20 (yard line) and the key is if you can’t make first downs and aren’t going to score you want to at least when you’re backed up get to the 40 and you punt. Our punter can knock it down to the 15-yard line and our defense can put them on a long field. Well, we didn’t do that.

“Those penalties were caused by us. We had four plays and three penalties and went backwards You can’t do that.”

Q: Correct me if I’m wrong, but they were all on the offensive line.

EDWARDS: “Absolutely and it’s just little things that come up and we’ve got to correct those things.”

Q: What did you think of special teams?

EDWARDS: “I thought special teams covered fairly well. I thought the kickers kicked. The punt coverage teams were okay. The protection wasn’t as good as you would like. I thought the punter punted very well.”

Q: What about your kickers?

EDWARDS: “They only got one shot. They’re not going to kick it in the endzone. We know that. I thought our coverage teams were pretty good. What they did to us – and we haven’t practiced that a whole bunch – they kicked it in the corners a whole bunch and it was hard to get a decent return. We’ve got to work on that. But I think we have some return guys, I really do. I think we have some guys who can return the football, especially on the kicks. Now, we’ve got to see about BJ (Sams) and whoever else we have.”

Q: What about your kickers? Is that closer than maybe you had anticipated at this point? Is it that close?

EDWARDS: “It’s close and there are three games left. Hopefully, we can get in better field goal position. But I’ll take touchdowns though. If we score three touchdowns and one field goal I’ll take 24 points every week if we can get it. They just didn’t have a lot of opportunities, so you try to measure what you see in practice.”

Q: Last year with your experience with Justin Medlock, if it’s close do you have to go with the guy with more experience?

EDWARDS: “I don’t know. That’s a tough call. I think you just have to go with what your gut tells you if it’s close. Then you’ve got to rely on them and see what happens.”

Q: Do you feel this rookie is mentally strong enough to kick in the NFL?

EDWARDS: “Yeah. He is. He’s a pretty tough kid.”