Arrowhead Pride
When Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid spoke with the media before Monday afternoon’s practice, he noted that as the team prepares for Friday’s preseason finale against the Chicago Bears on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, it would be following a familiar routine on the practice field — and in the media room.
“This will be very similar to an in-season Wednesday practice,” he told reporters. “Now that we’re back here, it gives you guys kind of a dry run to see how the meeting schedule goes before an in-season game — and also how practice goes.”
But in this exhibition season, not everything is being done the same way. In a break from precedent, many of the team’s starters remained on the sidelines during last Friday’s 33-16 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Reid confirmed that starters will see some action in Friday’s preseason matchup.
“They’ll start it off for sure,” said Reid, “and then we’ll see how it goes from there.”
This will allow the team to get another look at the left side of Kansas City’s offensive line, which has been the biggest question mark about the team during training camp and the first two preseason games. Reid has been encouraged with what he’s observed, but he wants to see more.
“I like how physical they’re playing, for sure,” he remarked. “The more reps they get, the better I think for them, but I think they’re doing a good job over there.”
Rookie left tackle Josh Simmons, in particular, has caught the coach’s eye from his work with offensive line coach Andy Heck following a major knee injury Simmons suffered at Ohio State last season.
“I like the way he’s approached it,” remarked Reid. “He’s worked at it. He hasn’t missed a beat here as far as missing a day or any of that. So he’s been available — and he’s working with Coach Heck on getting better every day. So I like where we’re at right now — but we’ve got to keep going. He’s a young guy, but he’s been working his tail off.”
Playing next to Simmons at left guard, second-year player Kingsley Suamataia — who entered his rookie season starting at left tackle — has been highly scrutinized while adjusting to his new position. Reid sees a relationship developing between the two offensive linemen.
“Those two,” noted Reid, “they’ve got a little something going there. You can see it more in the run game right now, where they’re really working well together. Then in the pass game, both of them are kind of feeling that part out. [But] they’re doing a good job with it. We’ve been able to get some games in there against them. I thought they handled that well last week with some of the blitz stuff. Kingsley had a couple [of] trip-ups where the back stepped up and he tripped over somebody’s foot there. Other than that, he did a pretty good job.”
Reid also lauded Suamataia’s handling of...
