Despite rain in St. Joseph, the Chiefs practiced outside on Sunday.

HEAD COACH ANDY REID

OPENING STATEMENT: “There is nothing necessarily new on the injury front. Damond Smith had an abductor strain, and (Mike) DeVito, (Kyle) Love, (Kona) Schwenke, (Ryan) Succop, you know the deal there. Good work today, glad we were able to get outside. The weather cooperated a bit with us. Good challenging throughout – offense and defense – it was all 1’s working together, 2’s working with 2’s and the 3’s with the 3’s. They competed, they challenged each other. I know you want to know a little bit about the corner situation. What we’re doing is we’re rolling the three guys in there so (Sean) Smith is in with the 1’s and he is rolling with the 1’s, and they’re really getting equal opportunity. It’s great competition right now. Smith is coming off a good game, he is playing good football right now so it’s important that we’ve got three or four of those guys. If we can get a fifth one that is even better that we feel can jump in and compete for us.”

Q: Can you talk about the movement next to Derrick Johnson at inside linebacker?

REID: “Joe Mays, he’s the guy in base. JMJ (James-Michael Johnson) you see in there in nickel, and (Josh) Mauga. They are all kind of in there and doing their things. Nico (Johnson) is getting better every day, which is fun to watch so good competition in there too.”

Q: Are you okay seeing Derrick Johnson hitting Jamaal Charles in practice?

REID: “They’ve got this Texas thing. You’ve got to look at the positive: Jamaal got up and his head was good and everything else so I’m good with it. That is going to happen out here. That is going to happen, I got it. You saw one with the offensive line, one of the offensive lineman hit a linebacker and then hit him again. You’ve got to be smart. It’s part of the game and things are going to happen.”

Q: I know you’re surveying back there. Are you kind of like ‘just get up’? What are you thinking when you see it?

REID: “Well, I mean, you see a lot of those in football. You just keep going. They’re competing. It’s a Texas thing.”

Q: You’ve talked about a fifth corner. Do you see anyone stepping up right now?

REID: “You see (DeMarcus) Van Dyke is playing good football. Gaines is playing good football. I mean these guys are getting better every day. Again, that’s a good thing and they’re getting a lot of reps which is important right now against good players. I’m curious to see how they carry it over as they continue to get reps in games and how they do there.”

Q: Do you plan on replacing Steve Gregory?

REID: “John (Dorsey) and his crew are looking at that right now.”

Q: Brad Childress seems to be doing a lot of work with De’Anthony Thomas running routes. How is that going?

REID: “That was Brad’s title to work with those guys, and I’m not going to say De’Anthony is a hybrid, he does a lot of different things. He did it in college at Oregon, and he’s still doing it here. Brad works with him, David (Culley) works with him a little bit and EB (Eric Bieniemy) works with him probably more than anybody. The kid’s got a lot of plays, and he’s handling it very well.”

Q: Is that something you spent a lot of time on then?

REID: “Not too much. I guess when I first started off I did. As I’ve gone on, I’ve got a pretty good feel on the quarters I want them to play and what they need and collectively as a group.”

Q: You’ve seen a lot of football, how good is Jamaal Charles as a blocker at the running back position?

REID: “He’s good, he works at it. A lot of those guys don’t work at it. He wants to do everything the best, that’s a part that you love about him as a football player. He spends a tremendous amount of time doing it. You see how EB (Eric Bieniemy) works these guys, and it’s not just on carrying the football, it’s route running, it’s blocking in the run game, it’s blocking in the pass game. They’ve got to do all of it.”

Q: As far as the quarterback situation, I know you’re still a week away from your next game, but its looks like you’re intending to play Tyler Bray a little more.

REID: “Yeah, I’m not exactly sure. I haven’t gotten to that point. I’ll get that here later in the week. I’ll make that decision as we go here.”

Q: It looks like Ricky Henry has climbed up the guard charts there because he’s getting some snaps with the ones, what do you like about him?

REID: “He’s a tough kid, I’m not telling you it’s all pretty. He looks like Larry the Cable Guy and plays like Larry the Cable Guy. He’s kind of a dirt bag type guy, he gets in there and he’s rough and tough and scrappy and all of that so that’s how he’s playing right now.”

Q: Is he as funny as Larry the Cable Guy?

REID: “I don’t think he’s as funny. I haven’t heard him say a word. He just does his job.”

LB JOE MAYS

Q: How are you doing?

MAYS: “I’m good, I feel good. I mean, as good as I’m going to get, it’s training camp.”

Q: Is it hard at this point to not peek around the corner and see the end coming?

MAYS: “No, there’s too much work to get done out here. There’s a couple days left, and I notice that. But at the same time, you can’t look ahead that many days because there is so much work to put in one day. We are out here for three hours and we have a ton of stuff we install. So, it’s a lot of work to do.”

Q: So, it’s not like the end of the tunnel because there might be a train at the end if you don’t keep your mind on your job. There’s a lot of stuff you guys have put in and more than ever it seems the linebackers. They’ve decided that you guys are the best part of their defense because you’ve got a bunch of different packages now. Is it sometimes hard to keep them all straight?

MAYS: “You know what, it does get difficult at times. With me being the new guy, I try to know as much as I can, try to know every single defense and what everybody is doing. Yeah, it can get difficult and my mind can get scrabbles a little bit. But that is part of being a pro, going back in and getting your playbook. Making sure you ask the right questions, so when you’re out here on the field you’re always on the same page as your coaches and your teammates.”

Q: What do you think of the guys up front, guys like Dontari Poe?

MAYS: “Awesome, there aren’t that many guys in the NFL that are that big and can move the way he can move. He’s one part of the piece, one big part of the piece. We’ve got Tamba (Hali), (Justin) Houston and I have my man DJ (Derrick Johnson) playing right next to me. So it’s awesome to not only play in the scheme that we are playing in but to have the guys that I’m playing with. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

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