Babb: Chiefs need to avoid pitfalls on road to training camp

[Tribal Warfare]

Chiefs need to avoid pitfalls on road to training camp
By KENT BABB | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Todd Haley thought the Chiefs deserved a reward. And why not? Players’ conditioning hadn’t slipped in the months after the season, at least not as it had a year earlier. This time, players were eager, in shape and energized.

So, Haley ended offseason practice a day early this past week, canceling Tuesday’s workout and sending the team into a six-week hiatus during which the players will, for better or worse, be on their own. No coaches or trainers in their ear, no teammates and early-morning workout sessions to get them moving on a slow day. And there are a lot of days — and many potential pitfalls — between now and July 29, when the team reports to St. Joseph for training camp.

The Chiefs went their separate ways, and thus begins what could be the most important month and a half of the team’s year. If players keep their focus, the Chiefs could be on track to cash in on a promising offseason and, if nothing else, perhaps break a three-year string of winning no more than four contests. If they backslide, the Chiefs’ progress the past four months could be lost.

“They’ve made a great investment,” Haley said of his players, “and they can’t have any slippage. There’s not one that can afford to have any slippage during the time that we’re not going to be together.”

For a hands-on coach like Haley, six weeks is a long time to wait. This period will be the longest most players have gone without available team-organized activities since March, when the Chiefs’ offseason conditioning program began. It was during that program last year that Haley learned how far his team had to go.

Players had tossed aside their discipline after the chaos of 2008: a 14-loss season that led to changes at head coach, general manager and enough other places that the easy thing was to just stay inside, skip the day’s workout, and ignore what was happening on Arrowhead Drive. Defensive lineman Glenn Dorsey, wide receiver Dwayne Bowe and left tackle Branden Albert famously piled on extra pounds, and they were only among the players whose gains were so severe that Haley made a public spectacle of them.

“We all had to adjust to the environment,” said guard Brian Waters, who skipped all voluntary workouts in 2009 but attended all offseason practices a year later.

Altogether, Haley said, the Chiefs were made to lose about 700 pounds — or nearly 10 pounds per player on the offseason roster.

“Extremely out of condition and out of shape,” Haley said of the group he inherited. “We had to run a lot more than you’d probably like.”

The Chiefs spent so much time running that the early part of training camp was devoted to conditioning, something Haley said he’d hoped to avoid after spending so much time on it during offseason workouts. Players’ fitness had improved by last June, but several players spent the six weeks between offseason practice and training camp doing as little as possible. Nine players failed a conditioning test on the first day of camp, and Haley held them out of practice until they passed.

“I’ve still got a ways to go,” Dorsey said last August, after failing the test.

Dorsey became the exhausted face of both Haley’s conditioning movement and what can happen when a player doesn’t take his offseason fitness seriously. Dorsey spent four days moving from a stationary bike to other humiliating exercises — all conveniently staged near a prime viewing area for fans — in which he had to drag or push equipment as his teammates practiced.

Dorsey eventually came around, but while the Chiefs waited, they were unable to practice with an important part of their defense, which also was among the changes as it moved to the 3-4 scheme. Each day Dorsey missed was a day the team couldn’t work together, identify players’ weaknesses and practice football’s finer points, such as situational work. Dorsey vowed this offseason to avoid the temptations of 2009; he wouldn’t again be the reason the Chiefs couldn’t move forward on schedule.

“I just didn’t want to set myself back like I did last year,” he said. “That was in the back of my mind the whole time.”

When Dorsey and others arrived this offseason within striking distance of their target weights, the team was able to move on quicker. Haley said the team did about 60 percent less running compared with a year earlier. That made practices more efficient, and Haley said the Chiefs were far ahead of where they were at the same point in 2009.

“Not even close,” he said. “They’re in so much better condition. … It comes back to expectations, and they understood. They knew so much more this March than they did last March, and so did we as a coaching staff. That enabled us to do the things we were able to do.

“We’ve really had a good offseason to this point.”

That was to say nothing of the moves that could help the Chiefs take a long-awaited step forward. They signed running back Thomas Jones and guard Ryan Lilja during free agency, and both are expected to get significant playing time. The Chiefs’ draft class also got high marks, adding to the optimism at the team’s practice facility.

But Haley has reminded the team often: Much of it could be undone if enough players revert to last year’s bad habits. Home cooking isn’t easy to pass up, and it takes willpower in late June to avoid hitting the snooze button on that 7 a.m. workout. There will be time to stray, and that time could be among the biggest threats to a Chiefs turnaround.

Players won’t have the regimentation of scheduled workouts and practices. They won’t endure the worry of repercussions if they skip a workout or give half-effort. And they won’t have coaches and teammates nearby to hold them accountable.

For the next six weeks, this team will be little more than individuals spread across the country with plenty to do other than think about football. Same as they did a year ago, the Chiefs have options. They can push forward or relapse.

Haley said he has made it clear which option he expects players to take, and the choice that could help the team make good on that optimism.

“We can stay the same, we can get worse or we can get better,” he said. “What’s critical for everyone in this building is to continue to get better. I don’t have any doubt in my mind we’re making progress; we’ve gotten better this offseason.

“We’ve at least given ourselves a chance.”