Terrell fans: no Huard-Printers injured

[blueballs]

PRESEASON WRAP: AUGUST 25-26
Aug 26, 2007, 3:32:37 PM

By Josh Looney

Breakdown: The big news this weekend at Arrowhead Stadium was obviously the fact that Chiefs Head Coach Herm Edwards selected a starting quarterback for the club’s September 9th opener at Houston. QB Damon Huard won the job over QB Brodie Croyle in a competition that has been going on since spring drills.

“Starting in Houston we’re going to go with Damon Huard as our starting quarterback,” Edwards told members of the media after practice on Saturday. “It’s about winning now, regardless of what people say. Going on the road Opening Day, Damon gives our best opportunity to do it.”

Even though Edwards selected Huard as the starter, he still envisions a bright future for second-year QB Brodie Croyle.

“Brodie Croyle has a great future for us and one day will be the starting quarterback for this football team,” Edwards said. “It’s not Opening Day obviously. I think he’s come a long way since his rookie year. You can see a lot of flashes and a lot of potential in that guy.”

Croyle Likely Starter At St. Louis: Although Edwards named Huard the Chiefs starting quarterback on Saturday, expect to see Croyle start Thursday’s preseason game and work with the first-team offense. Edwards said that he will likely hold Huard out to rest his sore calf.

“He could play, but I’m going to hold him out,” Edwards said of Huard. “It will let Brodie play and gain more experience. Damon’s played a lot of football. Think about Damon last preseason, he only played 18 plays. He’s played 23 already this here so he’s way ahead this season.”

Injury Update: T Damion McIntosh continues to progress nicely as he rehabs his injured right knee. McIntosh has been working exclusively with trainers on the sidelines, performing agility and conditioning exercises aimed towards getting his knee back into playing shape.

“We’ll see,” McIntosh said of returning for the season opener at Houston. “I’m hoping so, but we’ll see how everything goes. (The trainers) will let me know when the time comes if they feel confident and if I feel confident.”

LB Donnie Edwards did not practice this weekend after leaving Thursday’s game against the Saints with an injury.

“Donnie’s fine,” head coach Herm Edwards said. “He could have practiced. He just strained a little something.”

Also missing both weekend practice sessions was QB Casey Printers. He is questionable for the club’s final preseason contest at St. Louis.

Pro Bowler Joins Chiefs: After visiting with club officials on Saturday, former Detroit Lions WR Eddie Drummond agreed to terms of a one-year contract with the Chiefs on Sunday.

A Pro Bowl return specialist in 2004, Drummond boasts a resume that includes 108 punt returns for 1,058 yards (9.8 avg.) with four TDs and 213 kick returns for 5,026 yards (23.6 avg.) with six TDs. During the 2004 campaign, Drummond tied an NFL record with four combined kick return TDs.

Roster Update: With the NFL’s mandatory cutdown to 75 players looming just days away (3:00 PM on Tuesday), a steady stream of roster moves are expected. In preparation to meet Tuesday’s roster deadline, Kansas City made six transactions before the weekend.

The club terminated the contract of WR Rod Gardner and released DE Chris Harris, CB Marcus Maxey, TE Mike Pinkard, T Ramiro Pruneda and WR Titus Ryan.

Plays Of The Weekend: QB Jeff Terrell hit WR Dwayne Bowe on numerous occasions this weekend. One connection was a corner route inside the 10-yard line.

QB Brodie Croyle hit TE Tony Gonzalez on a perfectly thrown post route for a gain of 34 yards during the two-minute drill.

WR Samie Parker made a handful of nice receptions this weekend.

CB Ty Law picked off a Croyle pass in the flats and took it for six.

DE Jared Allen made a spectacular play when he jumped and picked off a pass at the line of scrimmage, enabling him to walk into the end zone for an easy score.

Look Who’s Talking:
“Yeah, this ain’t the Dow Jones though.“
- RB Larry Johnson responding to questions regarding the team’s investment in him.

Look Ahead: The Chiefs will conduct practice sessions daily leading up to their fourth and final preseason contest at St. Louis on Thursday.

You Asked It: Submit your questions to Preseason Wrap by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.

Don from Wichita, KS: “Why not give QB Jeff Terrell some more reps in the next preseason game to see what he can do?”

JL: Don, there is a good chance we’ll see plenty of Terrell in the game at St. Louis on Thursday. Edwards has already indicated that he will sit QB Damon Huard and QB Casey Printers has missed practice time this weekend due to injury. Those two factors could result in more “P.T.” for Terrell.

Kevin A. from Kansas City, MO: “The Trek bicycles the players use to get from the dorms to the practice fields at training camp are auctioned off. When and where does this auction occur?”

JL: I’ve received a lot of inquiries from Chiefs fans regarding this topic. Plans are in the works, keep checking kcchiefs.com and local media outlets for an announcement.

Questions?: Is there a question about training camp or the Chiefs that you want answered? A handful of questions will be answered daily in the Preseason Wrap.

______________________

Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 8/26
Aug 26, 2007, 2:40:54 PM


VIDEO: Windows | Real | Audio

EDWARDS: “WR Eddie Drummond was here today. We got him from Detroit where he was a return guy out of Penn State. He was a Pro Bowler a while back and he’s here now wearing number 85. We anticipate him playing in the game on Thursday. He was a good special teams guy in Detroit. He actually played for special team coach Mike Priefer’s dad (Chuck Priefer) over there. There were a couple of clubs that were interested in him, but we were able to get something done with him over here.”

Q: Will he be returning punts?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he’s a punt returner and a kick returner. He’s done both and been a good special teams player. He’s been a flier and all of those sorts of things. So he’s been a core guy for those guys. He’s a guy that we knew about and like, so when he came available we brought him in.”

Q: You’ve been less then impressed at that position?

EDWARDS: “No, I think our return guys have done fairly well, but this is a seasoned guy that has been in the league four or five years now and we know a lot about him because of Mike Piefer’s dad. He’s here, we’ll see where he’s at and hopefully we can get him some returns. More punt returns than kick returns hopefully.”

Q: Will you use him in any other capacity?

EDWARDS: “He’s been a receiver, but he hasn’t caught a lot of balls. He’s a return guy and he’s a core guy that can play on kickoff coverage teams, punt coverage teams, a bracket guys, he’s done it all. He’s done everything you can ask a guy to do on special teams as well as return. You always look for those kinds of guys because at the end of the day that position is one where if you want to keep a guy he’s not just a return guy. He plays the whole game on special teams. That’s important when you can get a guy like that.”

Q: What happened to him in Detroit?

EDWARDS: “I guess they wanted to go with another guy. I don’t know. Mike’s dad liked him, we liked him and he did pretty good last year on punt returns averaging over 10-yards per return. Just like anything, you don’t know why teams do certain things with guys and you don’t worry about it. You just get enough information and evaluate him with your scouts and see how he fares and where he stacks up.”

Q: You said you didn’t know if RB Larry Johnson would play on Thursday. Larry said he wants to play. Are you going to have to sit down and talk with him?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, we’ll see. It’s one of those deals that if he does and he wants to play it will be real fast, don’t blink. It will be one of those type of things being the last game. But I can understand his motive. He hasn’t been tackled and he hasn’t carried the ball in live contact. As you get closer to this game you do it a lot of different ways. Everyone does it different. I’ve done it a couple of ways. You play the starters for a while, a series or two and get them out. I had one game in Philadelphia where we were all lined up to go and we had a rash of the flu virus or something; the whole starting offense and defense got sick before the warm-up. It wasn’t pretty. A lot of things happen, you can do it a lot of different ways and we’ll probably make our decision about it on Tuesday.”

Q: Is it too early for you to worry about the struggles of your offensive line this preseason?

EDWARDS: “I think that a lot of it has to do with what we’re trying to do and we weren’t trying to do a whole lot. Obviously when your router comes back that help you. That helps your offensive line and it helps everybody. We know what we need to do when we play Houston, that’s probably the most important thing. We are doing some things heading in that direction and all teams do that in the last preseason game and two weeks of preparation for your opponent. Hopefully you don’t over-prepare, but that’s basically what you do. I think we’ll get thing solidified with what we want to do offensively and we’ve got three veteran guys in there when you think about it.”

Q: G Brian Waters was very animated about the mental errors after the game last Thursday.

EDWARDS: “Distractions. That always happens when you break camp and you come back that first week or so. You’re always nervous about that and when you have a lot of young guys, all of a sudden they can’t handle the time that they have off from training camp. All of a sudden they are free at night. You leave here at 4:00 PM and there are lots of things you can do and get distracted by. You can’t let that feed into your personality and bring it to work.”

Q: Do you ever take any input from players regarding decisions on picking a starter, like when you picked QB Damon Huard as the start over QB Brodie Croyle?

EDWARDS: “Let me put it this way: Reporters report, players play, coaches coach. Moms are moms and dads are dads.”

Q: Have you had any reaction from your players?

EDWARDS: “No, to be quite honest. That’s why I don’t announce it to the team.”

Q: They were surprised.

EDWARDS: “I didn’t announce it. What do I need to do that for? Why should I do that? to me that’s ridiculous. That’s not a big deal. Let’s play, it’s like when a guy gets hurt. I don’t sit in a room and try to convince them that the next guy plays. When QB Trent Green went down, it was Damon’s turn to play. No big deal. When T Will Svitek had to go play, I didn’t have to say, ‘listen up, is the left starter right now.’ You go play. When a receiver gets hurt, you go play. I’ve never done it that way. When I made the switch (at quarterback) in New York after the fifth game of the season I didn’t announce it to anybody. The other guy was in there playing and they just said, ‘okay, that’s the way it goes.’ I’ve always done it that way and I think that’s the best way to do it. You don’t make a big deal out of something that’s not really a big deal.”

Q: What have you seen from Larry Johnson so far?

EDWARDS: “It looks like he’s in great shape for a couple of runs, but he’s not in shape to play whole game yet and carry the ball. What happens to all running backs, even the great ones, is they have to hit. You concern yourself the most when they get fatigued and a little tired and they get a little loose with the ball. The ball comes out and all of a sudden they fumble. We’re not going to put him in that position. We are going to be careful with him a bring him along; it’s a 16 game season. That’s how you have to look at it. He’s not going to carry the ball as much the first three or four games. He’ll get a feel for where he’s at and so will I.”

Q: Is there any question in your mind that he will start?

EDWARDS: “No, he’s going to play whether he starts or not. I would assume, but I don’t know that. He’s going to play and he’s going to carry the ball. He’s our starting running back at the end of the day.”

Q: How important is it for these starters to have a good drive and gain some confidence?

EDWARDS: “That’s what you wrestle with going into the last game; do you give them a series or a drive? I think the most important thing is that when you really look at our offense it’s more of a veteran group when you really think about it. The young guys are on the other side of the ball or they are backing up these guys. So even though Damon hasn’t played a lot in a starting role, he’s played a lot for us. The tight end is still the same tight end, the left guard is the same and so is the center. The tackles have changed a little, the fullback is the fullback and the tailback is the tailback. Both wide receivers are starters, so it’s a bunch of guys who have had some success. You’d like for them to have some success and get something going, but it’s on them to do it. They have to make some plays and that’s what we haven’t done. A lot of it comes because of penalties bringing them back, but we haven’t made any big plays. We need a spark. You can make a couple of good runs, but you need a 30 or 40-yard pass play or run to get you excited. Hopefully we can do that, but if we don’t we’ve got 16 games to try and do it. We have to make a big play or two to get them going.”

Q: Did Damon do a little more at practice today?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he’ll be fine. We’re just being very careful with him and a couple of other guys who are sore. There is no rush to get them back this week. They’ve got a whole other week to prepare. Their condition is pretty good and that’s whole thing right now, getting them in condition to play an entire football game. No starter in the league has played a whole game yet. You have to make sure that when you open your season up that the guys are in condition to play an entire game.”

Q: Are you going to get a better look at FB Boomer Grigsby this week?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he needs to play a lot this week, he really does. There will be some scenarios where we just use him.”

Q: Do you still have to see what he can bring?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, because it is getting down to that time where you have to make some tough decisions with some guys. He’s a guy who is a good special teams player for us, but we have to see if he can be that hammer guy as a fullback. We’ll do some things to see if he can do it.”

Q: When will you have to make a decision on RB Priest Holmes?

EDWARDS: “Every week is different. We have all the way until six weeks into the season. We can still put him on PUP for Opening Day. It’s not a rush, we’ve got time.”

Q: Were you surprised that Croyle didn’t make the strides that you wanted him to make this preseason?

EDWARDS: “It’s not that so much. It goes back to our success on offense. Nobody helped him. Nobody helped the guy. Nobody made a big play when they had an opportunity, so it kind of gets laid on the quarterback. The problem is that when you are in a situation like this, you need some stability. You don’t need a guy that’s a young player who feels like he needs to make all of the big plays. That’s not fair to a position player. You’ve got to have a guy with some stability who can go in there and has done it before. Brodie didn’t outright win the job. I think some people misunderstood me when I said that a competition was going to start. I think some people assumed that he was the starter, but that wasn’t it at all. It was a competition and it was fair. He had to win the job and it didn’t quite work out that way. Do I think he’s going to be the starting quarterback here one day? Yeah, I do. I think he has enough talent and I think that the players believe in him.”

[Tribal Warfare]

provide a link

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by Guttless Turd

“It’s about winning now, regardless of what people say. Going on the road Opening Day, Damon gives our best opportunity to do it.”

[Big Chief Homer]

"The tight end is still the same tight end, the left guard is the same and so is the center. The tackles have changed a little, the fullback is the fullback and the tailback is the tailback. Both wide receivers are starters"


Looks to me like Parker is sticking around

[the Talking Can]

so Parker starts....


"No one helped him."

No shit Herm. He didn't play with Dunn, McIntosh, LJ, or Bowe (barely)...won't it be amazing when our O suddenly looks better with all the starters back... So much circular logic around Croyle.

[teedubya]

The Talking Can is a crying douche.

[Toad]

EDWARDS: “I think that a lot of it has to do with what we’re trying to do and we weren’t trying to do a whole lot. Obviously when your router comes back that help you. That helps your offensive line and it helps everybody.

What the heck is a router?

[boogblaster]

The lead blocker... hope LJ & the D can carry this team till it jells ...