Arrowhead Pride
As the Kansas City Chiefs walked down the hill toward their practice field at St. Joseph’s Missouri Western State University on Thursday morning, veteran cornerback Kristian Fulton was finally with them.
Signed to a two-year, $20 million contract in March, Fulton has spent the entire camp on the team’s Active/PUP (physically-unable-to-perform) list as he recovered from an offseason cleanup surgery on his knee. He and linebacker Drue Tranquill — who also returned to the practice field on Thursday after missing four days of practice with a strained back — only took part in individual drills.
Neither is expected to play in Saturday night’s preseason opener against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, but Fulton’s return probably means he’ll get plenty of playing time in the third preseason game against the Chicago Bears on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on August 22. And for him, that should open the door to the season opener against his former team — the Los Angeles Chargers — in Sao Paulo, Brazil on September 5.
So that was an excellent way to begin the team’s final practice before Saturday’s game.
“All in all, [it was a] good practice,” announced head coach Andy Reid. “[A] long one today. The guys got a lot of reps in — and worked their tails off getting through. We had a little bit of heat today, [so] I thought the effort was definitely there. The ‘ones’ got a lot of reps, in particular.”
But will they get a lot of work on Saturday? Reid announced his usual plan for the preseason opener: the first string (including quarterback Patrick Mahomes) for the first quarter, Gardner Minshew leading the second string in the second quarter, Bailey Zappe taking over in the third and Chris Oladokun closing out the contest in the fourth.
Of course, it rarely works out exactly that way. More often, the starters are only in for a drive or two. In the team’s 26-13 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in last year’s preseason opener, even the starting offensive linemen (including rookie Kingsley Suamataia, who began the game at left tackle) were pulled after just four plays; usually, they stay in for most of the quarter. When Suamataia was outclassed in the first games of the regular season, this didn’t look like a smart move. But in fairness to Reid, he had just watched his free-agent wide receiver Hollywood Brown — who was expected to shoulder the bulk of the offensive load in 2024 — be knocked out of the game on the very first play.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” said Reid about the possibility of keeping the starters in the game for longer than usual. “We’ll see how it goes. I’ll play that by ear — but you know, probably not more than a quarter.”
Will that be enough for Josh Simmons, who is this season’s rookie left tackle? Or for Suamataia, who will probably be the starting left guard against the Chargers in Week 1?
“Well,...
