Read what Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Chris Jones and Joe Thuney said at Training Camp on Thursday.
RB CLYDE EDWARDS-HELAIRE
Q: On working with the offensive line
EDWARDS-HELAIRE: “The biggest thing is communication. You can say, pinpoint and look at certain things that everybody is doing but as long you can communicate and figure out what the next guy is doing, it’s 11 pieces working on one play at that time. You figure it out, get the calls, they communicate whatever they need to communicate to me and we execute it. So, it’s easier coming into year two and being able to communicate with those guys. The offense is understanding of a lot of the terminology that we’re using. That’s one of those things that makes it a lot easier. It’s not like, ‘Last year, where I was, we were doing this and we just called it this. So y’all call it this?’ It’s just one of those things, it’s just language. Once everybody gets comfortable with that, it gets a lot easier.”
Q: How much of the landmarks or place of where you want to be on certain plays, how much do you have a say in adjusting that from year to year? Or is it more of Offensive Coordinator Eric Bieniemy, Offensive Line Coach Andy Heck, Head Coach Andy Reid and obviously Running Backs Coach Greg Lewis, seeing what worked and going with that?
EDWARDS-HELAIRE: “I feel like it’s so much film study and so many, ‘They’re picking up this thing and they’re trying to work this and we’re trying to get this guy implemented in the pass game a little bit more.’ And then we have so many new pieces that the only thing you can do is stick people in certain spots and see, ‘Oh, that’s a good combination.’ We have so many weapons that it’s to the point to where we could put me outside, Mecole (Hardman) in the backfield, we could put ‘two-four’ (Skyy Moore), however you want to do it. It’s the whole understanding of offense and once you have so many skill guys that can run anything and get into certain positions, you don’t want to switch positions in certain spots. This is because if it’s just me not filling a certain spot and the next guy has to go in and run the same play, just making the adjustment for me is not beneficial for the offense.”
Q: I understand you’re going to go where your number is called. How much damage do you think that you could potentially have in the pass game?
EDWARDS-HELAIRE: “I am a thousand and ten percent confident in my hands. I feel like I am one of the best pass catchers, as far as running backs in the league. I will completely stand on that. That’s just one of those things that (Offensive Coordinator) Coach (Eric Bieniemy) EB and (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid are trying to get implemented. It’s one of (Patrick Mahomes) Pat’s things too, like ‘I don’t have to just throw it to the receivers, I can throw it to anybody on the field.’ That’s what we do. We throw the ball to everybody.”
OL JOE THUNEY
Q: All the talk last year was of course you guys were a brand-new line, now in the second year how is that cohesion getting even better and how do you want it to keep getting better through camp?
THUNEY: “Yeah, for sure. It’s been great having the year under our belt and kind of playing with each other for a decent amount of time in the season and understand the playbook better and just little nuances and things that go along with it. So yeah, it’s been great knowing everybody better and yeah it’s going well so far.”
Q: If the coaching staff were to ask you to move to left tackle how comfortable would you be with that on a day-to-day basis, even tomorrow?
THUNEY: “Whatever the coaches want me to play I’m willing to play whatever, I just like to play football. It doesn’t matter where. I just want to be out there with the guys. That’s kind of the bottom line, anywhere, just want to play.”
Q: You mentioned Creed (Humphrey) and Trey (Smith) earlier. Over the past few days they have used the word physical. They want the Chiefs offensive line to be known as being physical. How do you go about developing that mentality? Where does it start in the offseason?
THUNEY: “Yeah, I mean I think it can start all the way back at the beginning of OTAs. Just talking about it, watching film seeing what we can do to improve run game, pass game, the whole aspect of offensive line. You always want to be a physical offensive line you know? It takes all five guys. It starts there and then you just keep building and building and obviously training camp is a great place to grow it even more. It’s just kind of a day-to-day thing.”
Q: There are differences in protecting every quarterback, what keys did you learn throughout last season about protecting (Patrick) Mahomes? Did it change your approach during the season or going into this year?
THUNEY: “I think, you know Patrick (Mahomes) is a great, amazing quarterback. You never want to see him get hit or (him) to get hit at all. You know, it’s a team game and we want to throw up a wall as best we can and give him as much time as needed. So really just kind of the fundamentals stay the same and play through the whistles. Just trying to play through great technique and physicality and effort.”
DT CHRIS JONES
Q: There is a report out there that the Chiefs are adding Carlos Dunlap what do you think he brings to the team?
JONES: “I mean Carlos Dunlap; his resume speaks for itself. I think he had seven or eight sacks last year for Seattle. He’s a high character guy. I trained with him this offseason in Miami. If we’re able to add him, if the report is true, we’ll accept Carlos with open arms. I think he’s a veteran guy that has had a lot of experience in this league and to have a veteran guy like that in this position group I think it will be remarkable.”
Q: What are your goals for this season?
JONES: “To make sure this d-line is one of the best d-lines in the league. Whether it’s sacks, whether it’s playing the run and whether it’s being gritty on the field. And I feel like this defense drives off the d-line. My point of emphasis is that we take this day by day. It’s a journey; as long as we’re making strides being one percent better than yesterday then we’re going in the right direction.”
Q: You’re a guy that gets the fans fired up, what does it mean to be back in front of them here in St. Joseph?
JONES: “It’s amazing. Actually, I started missing football. I want to be around my teammates, I want to be around the culture. Especially with the fan base, one of the best fan bases in the NFL. Our fans support us through thick and thin. And we’ve been fortunate enough to give back to them with four AFC (championships). That’s a journey (that) starts here. You see how full it is out there on a day-to-day basis and these are just the first two days. I appreciate the support from our fan base. I love you KC when they watch this. It’s very encouraging to us to see how many people come out here and support us.”