Mr. Kotter
08-23-2005, 01:31 AM
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/football/nfl/kansas_city_chiefs/12450867.htm
Stars coming back out
Veterans will see more playing time
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star
Training camp is over for the Chiefs, and the Sept. 11 season opener against the Jets is no longer some obscure object far off in the distance.
It’s time to get serious, and the Chiefs will change the way they go about business when they return to practice this afternoon, this time at the Truman Sports Complex facility.
Their aging stars will get no more practice time off. In fact, all starters will receive more work. Coach Dick Vermeil said the first units probably will play into the second half in Saturday’s preseason game against Seattle at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chiefs also expect to get back several injured veterans, including Tony Gonzalez, Will Shields, Jason Dunn, Kendrell Bell, Carlos Hall, Jerome Woods and Eric Warfield.
The goal against the Seahawks will be to find some production from the starting offense, which has only one touchdown to show for two games. Even that was a gift. The biggest play on the touchdown drive Saturday against Arizona was a questionable pass interference penalty.
“We’re not functioning as a unit as efficiently as we did last year in the first two preseason games,” Vermeil said. “We’re aware of that.
“We need unit work. We need cohesiveness. We need to improve our pass protection. That will help Trent (Green) improve his rhythm and accuracy. He’s got to get sharper than he’s been. He’s got to practice more and play more. Our receivers have to do a better job, our younger guys especially. They get in a game and they break the route short, and that fouls the quarterback up.
“All of those things can be ironed out within the next three weeks or 10 football practices we have prior to playing the Jets.”
Yardage hasn’t been the Chiefs’ problem. In six possessions covering the two games, the starters committed no turnovers and had only one series of three plays and a punt.
But they have only 10 points. The struggles of kicker Lawrence Tynes are part of the problem. The Chiefs appear content to stick with Tynes for now, but that could change next week, when teams must trim their rosters and more kickers become available.
“Anybody that’s worth bringing in, we’ll bring in,” Vermeil said. “That may not happen for a while. Right now, it’s just to see if we can get Tynes through that slump.
“He knows the pressure is on him. Hopefully, we’ll help him handle it properly. If he doesn’t, we’ll have to find another kicker.”
Green isn’t in danger of losing his job, though he hasn’t played particularly well. On Monday, he was the Chiefs’ only healthy veteran quarterback. Todd Collins still isn’t ready to throw, and Damon Huard had a concussion, making him unlikely to play Saturday against Seattle.
The Chiefs were planning to sign veteran quarterback Jonathan Quinn, a reserve for the Chiefs for two seasons before joining the Bears last year. He played poorly, and Chicago released him.
Quinn would join Green and James Kilian as available quarterbacks. He could conceivably get some snaps against Seattle, but it’s the work of Green and his colleagues that will most interest Vermeil.
“We’ve had guys not in there,” Vermeil said in explaining the offensive problems. “You take Tony Gonzalez out of there and you take Jason Dunn out of there, and you get in your goal line and short-yardage and it’s a different ballgame. You take (Kevin Sampson) out of there and you (lose) the experience of Will Shields. All of those things make a difference.
“Our emphasis hasn’t been placed on game planning. We’ve been putting it on looking at different things with different people each week. There are certain things we wanted to accomplish last week. We wanted to score more points than we did but we also wanted to see how Kris Wilson could handle the blocking as a tight end inside.
“He did some good things. We did some specific things with Samie Parker. There were different scenarios. Within those scenarios, you’d like to score more points and we didn’t.”
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To reach Adam Teicher, Chiefs reporter for The Star, call (816) 234-4875 or send e-mail to ateicher@kcstar.com
Stars coming back out
Veterans will see more playing time
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star
Training camp is over for the Chiefs, and the Sept. 11 season opener against the Jets is no longer some obscure object far off in the distance.
It’s time to get serious, and the Chiefs will change the way they go about business when they return to practice this afternoon, this time at the Truman Sports Complex facility.
Their aging stars will get no more practice time off. In fact, all starters will receive more work. Coach Dick Vermeil said the first units probably will play into the second half in Saturday’s preseason game against Seattle at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chiefs also expect to get back several injured veterans, including Tony Gonzalez, Will Shields, Jason Dunn, Kendrell Bell, Carlos Hall, Jerome Woods and Eric Warfield.
The goal against the Seahawks will be to find some production from the starting offense, which has only one touchdown to show for two games. Even that was a gift. The biggest play on the touchdown drive Saturday against Arizona was a questionable pass interference penalty.
“We’re not functioning as a unit as efficiently as we did last year in the first two preseason games,” Vermeil said. “We’re aware of that.
“We need unit work. We need cohesiveness. We need to improve our pass protection. That will help Trent (Green) improve his rhythm and accuracy. He’s got to get sharper than he’s been. He’s got to practice more and play more. Our receivers have to do a better job, our younger guys especially. They get in a game and they break the route short, and that fouls the quarterback up.
“All of those things can be ironed out within the next three weeks or 10 football practices we have prior to playing the Jets.”
Yardage hasn’t been the Chiefs’ problem. In six possessions covering the two games, the starters committed no turnovers and had only one series of three plays and a punt.
But they have only 10 points. The struggles of kicker Lawrence Tynes are part of the problem. The Chiefs appear content to stick with Tynes for now, but that could change next week, when teams must trim their rosters and more kickers become available.
“Anybody that’s worth bringing in, we’ll bring in,” Vermeil said. “That may not happen for a while. Right now, it’s just to see if we can get Tynes through that slump.
“He knows the pressure is on him. Hopefully, we’ll help him handle it properly. If he doesn’t, we’ll have to find another kicker.”
Green isn’t in danger of losing his job, though he hasn’t played particularly well. On Monday, he was the Chiefs’ only healthy veteran quarterback. Todd Collins still isn’t ready to throw, and Damon Huard had a concussion, making him unlikely to play Saturday against Seattle.
The Chiefs were planning to sign veteran quarterback Jonathan Quinn, a reserve for the Chiefs for two seasons before joining the Bears last year. He played poorly, and Chicago released him.
Quinn would join Green and James Kilian as available quarterbacks. He could conceivably get some snaps against Seattle, but it’s the work of Green and his colleagues that will most interest Vermeil.
“We’ve had guys not in there,” Vermeil said in explaining the offensive problems. “You take Tony Gonzalez out of there and you take Jason Dunn out of there, and you get in your goal line and short-yardage and it’s a different ballgame. You take (Kevin Sampson) out of there and you (lose) the experience of Will Shields. All of those things make a difference.
“Our emphasis hasn’t been placed on game planning. We’ve been putting it on looking at different things with different people each week. There are certain things we wanted to accomplish last week. We wanted to score more points than we did but we also wanted to see how Kris Wilson could handle the blocking as a tight end inside.
“He did some good things. We did some specific things with Samie Parker. There were different scenarios. Within those scenarios, you’d like to score more points and we didn’t.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To reach Adam Teicher, Chiefs reporter for The Star, call (816) 234-4875 or send e-mail to ateicher@kcstar.com