HEAD COACH ANDY REID
OPENING STATEMENT: “As far as injuries go Jody Fortson, L’Jarius Sneed – and his is better it’s getting there the inflammation we’re working with and then KT (Kadarius Toney). Everyone else practiced it was good to get some of the guys that were banged up a little bit out there. Turk (Tershawn Wharton) continues to progress with reps. A little nine-on-seven, so on teams, good to get him in there. Anyways the guys are competing it was good to get them back, they had a day off yesterday. Good to get them back in there and working. They’re challenging each other which is a plus. With that time’s yours.”
Q: Did L’Jarius Sneed have a set back with his injury?
REID: “It just – it swells so we’re trying to keep the swelling down on that. The better we do that the better off he’s going to be for the season.”
Q: Did you expect the Charles Omenihu suspension to come?
REID: “You’re never sure about those – how many games they’re going to get. He got the six and that’s where we’re at. We’ll work – we knew it was going to be something, it went that direction; we’ll work through it. The other guys will step up and go.”
Q: How do you feel about the offensive line with Charles Omenihu?
REID: “Well I mean it’s done. He’s just got to keep pushing through and make sure he doesn’t slack off on the football part and then take care of business off the field.”
Q: How about the other guys on the defensive line?
REID: “They’re handling it well, we’ll just see how it all works out during the preseason who steps up, who doesn’t. We’ll just go from there. I think we have enough bodies there to take care it.”
Q: What’s your message to Charles Omenihu? Is this an important time with him where he still gets to work with the team?
REID: “Yeah absolutely that’s what he’s doing. That’s the frame of mine he’s in.”
Q: Have you thought about what you’re going to do in the first preseason game as far as mixing and matching players?
REID: “I haven’t no. We’re going through that though this week and making sure we get all that taken care of. Normally if you have four quarterbacks, they get a quarter apiece so that’s normally what you do and fit the other guys in there. I’ll give you all of that down the road as we get it set.”
Q: Have you seen any progress in camp from Felix Anudike-Uzomah?
REID: “Yeah, he’s had good work. It looks like he’s cutting it loose more, so that normally means that he’s picking it up better. And you’re seeing him play faster, he’s worked in there with the ones a little bit so that’s also good for him to feel that.”
Q: How is Isiah Pacheco progressing? When do you anticipate him taking the yellow no-contact jersey off?
REID: “He’s done very well. We’re doing everything we can to hold back on him. To tell him to go slow is a hard thing so he’s just got to have patience and he doesn’t have a lot of that. He’s doing great, he’s doing great. We just have to see as it goes on here with the contact part but he’s getting good work in without that.”
Q: We are in the dog days of camp. With the young guys specifically how have you seen them come off an off day and work on things?
REID: “The weather helps learning as you go. The guys can focus a little more on that, I think they’ve done a good job with – retention after days off has been good, so you know they’re in their books looking at things. We’re not just calling one install we’re using all the installs and they seem to be able to hang with that on both sides of the ball, so it’s been good that way.”
Q: How’s the progression going into the first preseason game of the team overall?
REID: “I like the way they’re challenging themselves. That’s the part you never know coming in how that’s going to be. You guys are here you can see it, you hear it and see it. They’re getting after each other but doing it the right way, still it’s competitive out here and that’s a good thing.”
Q: Is there an amount of time Chris Jones needs to be here to be ready for the season?
REID: “I don’t know when he’ll be here, but I tell you any work that he can get will help him yes. It’s a pretty fast game.”
Chiefs Player Quotes
August 7, 2023
P TOMMY TOWNSEND
Q: You were named to the All-Pro Team last season, what are you looking to improve this season?
TOWNSEND: “You know, I thought it was a really really solid year across the board, so it’s not really about trying to do anything different, it’s just about trying to do the same things I did and replicate it. But every season is different, so (I’m) just going to take what comes at me and do everything I can to have another good season.”
Q: In what ways does Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Dave Toub challenge you in practice?
TOWNSEND: “I mean he’s always putting pressure on me; he’s always putting a lot of pressure on me. That’s one thing that he always takes pride in, is making practice harder than the game. I think he does a really good job of that because I do get a little nervous out here; especially the first couple of practices back, you know it’s really nervy. Getting everything going, just the speed of it, you know, just how he has our practices set up, it really gets you prepped and ready for the season.”
Q: Going back to something you said earlier, how does Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Dave Toub make practices harder than the games?
TOWNSEND: “He just puts a lot of pressure on you to be perfect during practice. That’s not always going to happen, everyone has their good days and bad days. He puts a lot of pressure on us to be perfect and whether it’s me being – sometimes I feel more pressure when I go out there and am doing punt return and I’m punting to the returners just because I have to fire good kicks down there to the returners so they can have a good punt return period. You know, if I go out there and have bad punts, I kind of mess up the punt return period, so that’s a really big pressure situation. I like to challenge myself every now and again and go out and hit the punt return just because I have to have good kicks during that set especially.”
Q: You rolled your ankle last week, how is that doing?
TOWNSEND: “I mean it’s just kind of been a day-to-day thing, you know it’s been improving really quickly which is good. It just got twisted up a little bit last week, but like I said, it’s been feeling really good. I’ve been working with (Assistant Athletic Trainer David) Glover in the training room, and it’s been progressing really well. I don’t really expect it to be lingering or anything like that, so feeling good.”
CB TRENT MCDUFFIE
Q: You’ve lined up a lot inside this camp. How comfortable are you feeling at the nickel position right now?
MCDUFFIE: “Yeah, I mean this offseason I spent a lot of time just trying to learn the position a little more. I didn’t play it a lot in college. I’ve always been someone who said, ‘Throw me anywhere, I can play it,’ but nickel was something that I definitely had to learn. Coming into camp this year, it’s been tough, but I feel like I’ve learned a ton. Just the communication, having Nick Bolton on the inside talking to me a ton. Having corners out there, J-Wat (Jaylen Watson) and Josh (Williams) who know what they’re doing, and then a backend, my safeties, even Michael (Edwards) came in and his learning the playbook has been tremendous. Being able to just go in there and help out, especially with (L’Jarius) Sneed who is not in all the time, still working on himself. It’s going to be helpful.”
Q: How much has L’Jarius Sneed helped you with learning the nickel position?
MCDUFFIE: “Yeah, I feel like last year especially, coming back and then jumping straight inside, over the course of the end of last season. He’s just someone I can really just truly look up to and ask all the questions. He’s been here three years, he’s done it, inside outside. Just picking his brain and what he sees, how he does it, certain things, why he lines up that way has been for me, a teacher to student type of thing.”
Q: Overall, how do you feel this team is coming into the first preseason game compared to last year’s team?
MCDUFFIE: “I mean as far as just team overall, I feel like we’ve come really close to one another. Last year, there were eight rookies starting, it’s a new team. We had a lot of guys that came in. J (Justin) Reid didn’t know the defense, you had a bunch of receivers that came in. This team was really pretty new. Pretty new at just relationship building and just who we are as people. Over the course of a whole year, we made it all the way to the Super Bowl, won the Super Bowl, came back for OTAs and it felt like nothing fell. It felt like the Super Bowl team came into OTAs and started off really strong. Coming into training camp, it’s felt like nothing has gone missing, everybody has been building and building and building. I feel like (compared to) last year, we’re on a different level. We were a little bit further down, still trying to learn, trying to work it out. This year everybody came in here confident and excited to just go out there and play. That’s something you get to feed off of each and every day.”
RB ISIAH PACHECO
Q: How frustrating is it having to sit on the sidelines for practice, especially for a guy like you?
PACHECO: “It’s very frustrating, but when you’re on the side and getting those mental reps, you’re just detailing and getting those reps in the back – asking (Head) Coach (Andy Reid), ‘What’s this play?’ Doing those mental reps and in the back, it allows me to stay on top of my task.”
Q: Which rookie has jumped out at you and you see them heading in the right direction?
PACHECO: “I say all of them. That’s what I looked at last year with my class, all of us stood out. For example, we got some of those younger guys asking me, ‘How was this? How was that? Where do I take care of my body?’ You know just asking questions and for me I was doing the same as well. So, I don’t have a problem with sharing that information with that younger player to allow them to be the best they can be.”
Q: You don’t get stuffed at the line of scrimmage very much, what is your approach to not getting stuffed?
PACHECO: “My approach as far as not getting stuffed, that’s allowing myself to understand and trust the blocking scheme and understand how it’s going to get blocked up. For me, it’s just writing notes in the classroom of how the blocking scheme is going to get blocked up because like I said, you got guys that can slip off and that’s the play. We need all 11 guys to make the play, so for me, understanding the scheme to the pinpoint will allow me to find a way to get positive yards.”
Q: How much has the game slowed down for you?
PACHECO: “It’s slowed down a lot. Obviously, I trust myself and I trust the scheme, the quarterback and the coaches. For me it’s just like I said before, finding the little things that I got to get better at. Like I said, I got high standards and I’m unsatisfied.”