Click the links below to hear post-practice audio from the Chiefs at MWSU.
Defensive Coordinator Bob Sutton
Special Teams Coach – Dave Toub
OL Mitch Morse
WR L’Damian Washington
K Cairo Santos

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs have demonstrated a willingness under general manager John Dorsey and coach Andy Reid to give players who have run into trouble a second chance.

They’ve also proven there’s no such thing as a third.

Take the case of Justin Cox, a defensive back from Mississippi State. He went undrafted after missing the final three games and the Orange Bowl last season following a domestic violence arrest — a charge that was ultimately dropped — and the Chiefs gave him a shot. But when Cox was arrested again this summer, it took them less than 24 hours to send him packing.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a hard and fast policy because every situation is different,” Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt said. “It’s up to John and his staff to do the research when a player has an incident and make a judgment call whether it’s going to work out. That particular situation, it didn’t, but John is very aware we don’t want guys who are going to be a problem.”

The Chiefs do want players who can help them win, though, and therein lies the balancing act that all NFL teams face: Who do you take a risk on? When do take a pass?

In the three years since Dorsey and Reid have been in charge, the Chiefs have added numerous players with checkered pasts, and so far they’ve mostly steered clear of trouble.

Tight end Travis Kelce was their third-round pick a couple years ago, even though he had been suspended in college for violating team rules. Not only has Kelce developed into one of the most dynamic tight ends in the game, he has also matured into a locker room leader.

“A little bit more accountability,” Kelce replied, when asked how he’s changed.

The Chiefs also took a chance on cornerback Phillip Gaines in last year’s draft. He had run into trouble at Rice, but his size and speed made him an intriguing prospect. Fast-forward to this year’s training camp and Gaines is competing for one of the starting jobs.

But perhaps never have the Chiefs taken on so many players with spotty pasts as this past season, beginning with the draft and continuing right on through free agency.

Their first-round pick, Marcus Peters, was thrown off his team at Washington because he could not get along with new coach Chris Peterson. But the Chiefs insist that they researched the star cornerback, who might’ve been a top-10 pick had he stayed out of trouble, and came away confident that Peters had learned from his mistakes and was unlikely to repeat them.

“It was an emotional situation and he didn’t handle it the right way. I think he’s learned from it, just from our experience with him,” Reid said. “He was up front with us. He said, ‘I goofed,’ and that’s half the battle.”

Defensive lineman David Irving has also acknowledged his mistakes, a big reason Kansas City was willing to give him a shot as an undrafted free agent.

The former Iowa State standout was suspended after he was charged with domestic abuse against the mother of his child, a charge that was later dropped. Then, during a riot near campus during a student-run festival, Irving was photographed holding a stop sign that he argued was handed to him by another person. He was charged with theft, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.

When he did make it onto the field, Irving was one of the best defensive linemen in the Big 12, and he could help the Chiefs absorb the loss of nose tackle Dontari Poe to injury.

“We knew he was a good football player,” Reid said. “He had some issues, obviously. John Dorsey and his crew, I thought, did a nice job getting in there and making sure with him that he would fit in here and that he kind of had things going in the right direction.”

Dorsey and Reid also thought that Cox was headed in the right direction, only to proven wrong. But that is the tightrope they are willing to walk — star potential on one side of a very thing line, and more trouble looming just on the other.

“John and I talk about it, and he knows that we want to be a leader in the NFL,” Hunt said, “not a team that has a lot of guys that are getting in trouble.”

NOTES: Chiefs defensive coordinator Bob Suttons said Tuesday that LB Derrick Johnson “is back to where he was” before his season-ending Achilles injury. … Gaines left practice early with an injury. It did not appear to be serious. … WR L’Damian Washington, who signed with the Chiefs on Monday, participated in his first practice.

— Associated Press —

Click the links below to hear post-practice audio from the Chiefs at MWSU.
Head Coach Andy Reid
CB Marcus Peters
RB Knile Davis
OL Ben Grubbs
OL Eric Kush
DE Mike Catapano

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — Jamaal Charles had holes in his shoes on the first day of training camp.

The Chiefs running back was trying out a new pair, and they apparently were a bit tight in the toes. So Charles made incisions on each shoe that allowed his big toe to poke though.

Entering his eighth year in the league, they might be the only holes in his game.

Charles is coming off his third consecutive 1,000-yard season, despite battling nagging injuries all year. He also had at least 35 receptions for the third straight year, even though he was the constant focus of opposing defenses on a team with few offensive weapons.

“It’s a compliment,” Charles said of the attention. “As long as I play in this league, and play on a high level, I always feel like a team is going to have to stop me. I feel like sometimes I’m the LeBron (James) of football, especially at my position, because I can do so much.”

Provided Charles is healthy, of course.

He missed most of the 2011 season after tearing his ACL, then dealt with one injury after another last season, even if he never let on to them.

It began during the offseason program when he first picked up some bumps and bruises. It continued in training camp, when he bruised a foot while carrying a box out of Scanlon Hall when the team was wrapping up workouts at Missouri Western. And then when the season began, it seemed like just about every week there was a new ailment, some more serious than others.

They never caused him to miss a game, but they certainly curtailed his production. He carried just seven times for 19 yards in the season opener against Tennessee, then carried twice for 4 yards the following week against Denver, when he had to leave with an ankle injury.

“Last OTAs, I hurt my heel. I wasn’t showing anybody that I was hurt. Then I hurt myself before the preseason game. Then I got hurt in the second game. It was a struggle up and down,” he said, “right from the beginning of the season.”

It certainly wasn’t the way Charles, a two-time All-Pro, intended to celebrate his two-year contract extension that will earn him an additional $18.1 million through the 2017 season.

The Chiefs understand how important Charles is to a successful season. Nobody else on the roster can change a game as quickly. So to ensure he’s on the field late in the year, when Kansas City hopes to be in the playoff hunt, the teams’ brain trust spent much of the offseason dreaming up ways to keep him healthy, not only in training camp but beyond.

“You want to make sure he is healthy late in the season,” offensive coordinator Doug Pederson said, “so if that means giving a guy like Knile Davis some reps — whatever you have to do, number one, to keep him healthy for 16 games, and you do that each week.”

Pederson said one of the biggest challenges is noticing when Charles is operating at less than 100 percent. The former Texas standout hates to take time off, even from practice.

“We have to be smart and work with our training staff and our medical staff to just stay in tune,” he said. “Communication is obviously the utmost importance when it comes to those kinds of situations. We have to be smart and give him that proper rest, you know? And he has to communicate with us and tell us when he may be a little banged-up or maybe can’t go here or there.”

For now, Charles feels the best he has in a year, maybe even longer.

As for those new shoes? Well, the star running back doesn’t seem to be taking any chances with so much as a blister. Two days later, he was in a better-fitting pair.

NOTES: The Chiefs waived DE Jerel Worthy and signed former Missouri WR L’Damian Washington. … Practice was moved indoors Tuesday because of lightning in the area. … WR Jeremy Maclin and CB Phillip Gaines briefly left practice with minor injuries. Both returned. … First-round pick Marcus Peters is shining at CB, picking off three passes in practice. He’s competing for a starting job with Sean Smith suspended the first three weeks.

— Associated Press —

Click the links below to hear post-practice audio from the Chiefs at MWSU.
Chiefs’ Chairman & CEO Clark Hunt
Offensive Coordinator Doug Pederson
TE Travis Kelce
LB Derrick Johnson

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The massive linebacker with the sweat-drenched biceps insists he never took a day off this offseason, even if he never showed up for one of the Kansas City Chiefs’ workouts.

Early in training camp, it’s easy to believe him.

With his familiar No. 50 stretched across his broad shoulders, Justin Houston has wasted no time in terrorizing quarterbacks again — even if they happened to be his own teammates. While the Chiefs worked out in only shells during the first couple of days, and hitting the QB is always taboo this time of year, more than once Houston could have easily leveled the boom.

“I just made sure about being busy at all times,” said Houston, who often posted videos of his offseason workouts on social media while his representatives worked on a long-term contract.

The deal was consummated just over a week ago, a six-year, $101 million pact.

“I knew the guys here were working, and I knew the strength coaches were going to have these guys in shape,” Houston explained, “so I didn’t want to show up out of shape. Whenever I got that call, I wanted to make sure I was ready.”

The Chiefs will certainly be counting on him.

After piling up a franchise-record 22 sacks a year ago, Houston will have to anchor a defense that is already without two starters for Week 1, and that is getting older by the day.

Defensive tackle Dontari Poe, so critical in tying up offensive linemen and giving Houston a clear path to the quarterback, will miss all of training camp and likely part of the season after surgery for a herniated disc. Poe is on campus at Missouri Western, but the 350-pounder is nowhere close to being ready to step onto the practice field.

Then there’s cornerback Sean Smith, who’s suspended the first three games of the regular season for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy. It was Smith’s ability to lock down the opponent’s top wide receiver that often gave Houston time to get to the quarterback.

“Instantly, it’s kind of like a bulls-eye on your head,” said fellow linebacker Tamba Hali, who was in a similar situation when he signed a big contract a few years ago. “Everybody is going to scrutinize everything you do. Twenty-two sacks? People think that’s easy to do, so if he even gets 12 or 14 sacks, people are going to scrutinize. But that’s hard to do.”

Houston insists he can handle the weight of his massive contract, just as easily as he pushes up the countless plates he puts on the bench-press bar. It doesn’t matter that he will be double-teamed all season, or that the focus of opposing defenses will be squarely on him.

“I’m going to continue to do what I do,” he said. “Be ready for every game, continue to stay focused and continue to work like I’ve been working. Nothing changes.”

Chiefs owner Clark Hunt certainly hopes that’s the case.

After all, he opened his checkbook to write the largest check in franchise history, one that will pay the 26-year-old Houston $52.5 million in guarantees. It is the second-richest contract for a defensive player in NFL history, trailing only the $114 million, six-year deal Ndamukong Suh landed from the Miami Dolphins this past offseason.

“That’s part of today’s NFL,” Hunt said. “Just is a great player. He’s a great leader, he’s great in the community. He’s the type of player we want associated with the Chiefs for the bulk of his career. We always want to reward players we draft, that have grown up in our system.”

Hunt said he wasn’t in touch with general manager John Dorsey on a day-by-day basis, but the value of the contract naturally kept him in tune to negotiations.

Nor was Hunt worried about giving the deal to Houston, who fell from a potential first-round pick to the third round after testing positive for marijuana at the scouting combine. In the years since he was draft, Houston has proven to be the consummate professional.

“He’s turned into a great player,” Hunt said, “and a great leader.”

NOTES: It was Alumni Day at training camp. Among those on hand were former GM Carl Peterson, seven-time Pro Bowl OL Ed Budde and two-time Pro Bowl DT Bill Maas. … WR Albert Wilson had the highlight of the day, torching CB Sean Smith for a long touchdown catch. Smith promptly dropped down and did pushups as punishment for getting beat.

— Associated Press —