Wile_E_Coyote
07-24-2005, 04:21 PM
By ADAM TEICHER The Kansas City Star
July 24, 2005 Dick Vermeil often says a football coach's job is to worry. So it sounded like business as usual when he listed his concerns about the Chiefs after training camp one year ago.
His main issues: Having preseason games on four different days of the week made practice continuity impossible. Rain forced the Chiefs to lose several critical practice sessions. Injuries to most of the key wide receivers left the passing game in shambles.
Vermeil watched in horror as those worries turned real when the regular season started. The Chiefs looked forlorn in losing their first three games to Denver, Carolina and Houston and never recovered.
In hindsight, Vermeil's training-camp concerns no longer make him look like the boy crying wolf. He remains convinced, after a thorough review of last season's first couple of months, that those problems and others like them led to the rotten start.
The Chiefs will tinker with their routines at this year's camp, which begins Thursday in River Falls, Wis. The changes are nothing drastic or radical, but to the trained eye they will be noticeable - and they're all aimed at getting the Chiefs off to a faster start.
"If you don't change what you do," Vermeil said, "you end up with the same results."
Camp should be an easier experience for many veterans, if not all players. The Chiefs are scheduled for only one practice in full pads each day, though Vermeil said he would alter that if rain again created havoc.
He's better able to do that because the preseason schedule, created by the NFL, is much more uniform than it was last year. The Chiefs open the preseason on Aug. 12, a Friday, at Minnesota. Following are Saturday home games against Arizona and Seattle and finally a Friday game at St. Louis.
The Chiefs last year had 10 days with no game after the preseason opener. Subsequent breaks were only of five days each.
"We have one or two fewer days scheduled in pads than last year," Vermeil said. "But it's a better distribution of practice days. We don't lose practices because we're tapering off to prepare for a preseason game.
"We had a lot of disruption in training camp last year. The schedule was already disruptive, and then we lost some very critical football practices due to the weather. The organization of training camp right now, just in terms of routine, is a much better final two weeks."
Vermeil said he planned to hold some veterans such as Willie Roaf (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/2586/) and Will Shields (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/2445/) to one practice per day and provide the occasional practice off to others such as Casey Wiegmann (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/3820/) and Eric Hicks (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/4535/).
"Those guys know our system," Vermeil said. "They know what we want to do. Eric Hicks isn't going to practice all the time. He's going to sit out from time to time and let other people, younger people, get more work. Hopefully, that will preserve those guys and they will be fresher when the season starts."
The Chiefs scrapped their annual two-day workout against the Minnesota Vikings (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/min/) in favor of a normal, two-a-day practice routine. The Chiefs lost a player to a season-ending injury in each of the last two years against the Vikings, and the joint practices became more notable for the brawling between the teams than high-quality practice time.
"You've got to contend with fighting and controlling everybody, and also the travel and the disruption of routine," Vermeil said. "We just decided the best thing to do was stay with our routine and work with our players and do what we want to do. This way, we don't have to adjust anything."
The Chiefs, like most teams, traditionally work on a season's worth of material during training camp even if they don't plan to use some of it until later in the year. They intend to concentrate this time on things they will use in the first four regular-season games.
They plan three days of practice specifically aimed at the Sept. 11 opener against the Jets at Arrowhead Stadium before the preseason is finished.
"We're going to work on things we're going to be using those first three or four (regular-season) games even if we don't use them in the preseason games," Vermeil said. "We're not going to spread ourselves too thin and try to do too much. We've gone over everything in detail. Our coaches are too bright not to correct anything they can find at fault in regard to our preparation."
That's a move directed at the whole team, but quarterback Trent Green (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/2547/) in particular. He was perhaps the one most affected by last year's on-again, off-again practice routine and injuries that kept wide receivers Johnnie Morton (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/2876/), Eddie Kennison (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/3519/) and Marc Boerigter (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/6196/) out of much of camp.
It showed in his early season play. Green completed only 56 percent of his passes with three touchdowns and three interceptions in the first three games. His ill-advised pass into the end zone at a crucial juncture in a game against Houston was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
That was a pivotal play in a crushing loss. The Chiefs, the defending AFC West champions, were in effect finished for the season before the leaves had even dropped.
The Chiefs, after revamping their defense with what could be as many as five new starters, have similarly high hopes this year.
"It's going to be a good year," Tony Gonzalez (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/3950/) said. "It's now or never, as far as I'm concerned. It's going to be the best team on paper that I have ever been on. If we don't go out and get the job done this year, there is something wrong with us."
A good break from the start wouldn't hurt, but it won't be easy. The Chiefs are only one of three teams to play three of last year's postseason contestants in the first four games. Atlanta and Tennessee are the others.
The other opponent is the Raiders, who lost two close games to the Chiefs last season and have added Randy Moss (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/4262/) and LaMont Jordan.
"We have to start fast," Vermeil said. "For some reason, they don't give Lamar (Hunt) a break. Nobody else in the league is assigned to do what we are assigned to do in the first four games."
Slow starters, usually
Except for their AFC West championship season of 2003, the Chiefs have been slow starters under Dick Vermeil:
Year 3Finish Season
2001..1-2....6-10
2002..1-2....8-8
2003..3-0...13-3
2004..0-3....7-9
http://www.kcchiefs.com/media/players/freddie_mitchell.jpg
July 24, 2005 Dick Vermeil often says a football coach's job is to worry. So it sounded like business as usual when he listed his concerns about the Chiefs after training camp one year ago.
His main issues: Having preseason games on four different days of the week made practice continuity impossible. Rain forced the Chiefs to lose several critical practice sessions. Injuries to most of the key wide receivers left the passing game in shambles.
Vermeil watched in horror as those worries turned real when the regular season started. The Chiefs looked forlorn in losing their first three games to Denver, Carolina and Houston and never recovered.
In hindsight, Vermeil's training-camp concerns no longer make him look like the boy crying wolf. He remains convinced, after a thorough review of last season's first couple of months, that those problems and others like them led to the rotten start.
The Chiefs will tinker with their routines at this year's camp, which begins Thursday in River Falls, Wis. The changes are nothing drastic or radical, but to the trained eye they will be noticeable - and they're all aimed at getting the Chiefs off to a faster start.
"If you don't change what you do," Vermeil said, "you end up with the same results."
Camp should be an easier experience for many veterans, if not all players. The Chiefs are scheduled for only one practice in full pads each day, though Vermeil said he would alter that if rain again created havoc.
He's better able to do that because the preseason schedule, created by the NFL, is much more uniform than it was last year. The Chiefs open the preseason on Aug. 12, a Friday, at Minnesota. Following are Saturday home games against Arizona and Seattle and finally a Friday game at St. Louis.
The Chiefs last year had 10 days with no game after the preseason opener. Subsequent breaks were only of five days each.
"We have one or two fewer days scheduled in pads than last year," Vermeil said. "But it's a better distribution of practice days. We don't lose practices because we're tapering off to prepare for a preseason game.
"We had a lot of disruption in training camp last year. The schedule was already disruptive, and then we lost some very critical football practices due to the weather. The organization of training camp right now, just in terms of routine, is a much better final two weeks."
Vermeil said he planned to hold some veterans such as Willie Roaf (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/2586/) and Will Shields (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/2445/) to one practice per day and provide the occasional practice off to others such as Casey Wiegmann (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/3820/) and Eric Hicks (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/4535/).
"Those guys know our system," Vermeil said. "They know what we want to do. Eric Hicks isn't going to practice all the time. He's going to sit out from time to time and let other people, younger people, get more work. Hopefully, that will preserve those guys and they will be fresher when the season starts."
The Chiefs scrapped their annual two-day workout against the Minnesota Vikings (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/min/) in favor of a normal, two-a-day practice routine. The Chiefs lost a player to a season-ending injury in each of the last two years against the Vikings, and the joint practices became more notable for the brawling between the teams than high-quality practice time.
"You've got to contend with fighting and controlling everybody, and also the travel and the disruption of routine," Vermeil said. "We just decided the best thing to do was stay with our routine and work with our players and do what we want to do. This way, we don't have to adjust anything."
The Chiefs, like most teams, traditionally work on a season's worth of material during training camp even if they don't plan to use some of it until later in the year. They intend to concentrate this time on things they will use in the first four regular-season games.
They plan three days of practice specifically aimed at the Sept. 11 opener against the Jets at Arrowhead Stadium before the preseason is finished.
"We're going to work on things we're going to be using those first three or four (regular-season) games even if we don't use them in the preseason games," Vermeil said. "We're not going to spread ourselves too thin and try to do too much. We've gone over everything in detail. Our coaches are too bright not to correct anything they can find at fault in regard to our preparation."
That's a move directed at the whole team, but quarterback Trent Green (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/2547/) in particular. He was perhaps the one most affected by last year's on-again, off-again practice routine and injuries that kept wide receivers Johnnie Morton (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/2876/), Eddie Kennison (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/3519/) and Marc Boerigter (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/6196/) out of much of camp.
It showed in his early season play. Green completed only 56 percent of his passes with three touchdowns and three interceptions in the first three games. His ill-advised pass into the end zone at a crucial juncture in a game against Houston was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
That was a pivotal play in a crushing loss. The Chiefs, the defending AFC West champions, were in effect finished for the season before the leaves had even dropped.
The Chiefs, after revamping their defense with what could be as many as five new starters, have similarly high hopes this year.
"It's going to be a good year," Tony Gonzalez (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/3950/) said. "It's now or never, as far as I'm concerned. It's going to be the best team on paper that I have ever been on. If we don't go out and get the job done this year, there is something wrong with us."
A good break from the start wouldn't hurt, but it won't be easy. The Chiefs are only one of three teams to play three of last year's postseason contestants in the first four games. Atlanta and Tennessee are the others.
The other opponent is the Raiders, who lost two close games to the Chiefs last season and have added Randy Moss (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/4262/) and LaMont Jordan.
"We have to start fast," Vermeil said. "For some reason, they don't give Lamar (Hunt) a break. Nobody else in the league is assigned to do what we are assigned to do in the first four games."
Slow starters, usually
Except for their AFC West championship season of 2003, the Chiefs have been slow starters under Dick Vermeil:
Year 3Finish Season
2001..1-2....6-10
2002..1-2....8-8
2003..3-0...13-3
2004..0-3....7-9
http://www.kcchiefs.com/media/players/freddie_mitchell.jpg