KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -Smiling, joking and unusually upbeat, coach Todd Haley declared Kansas City’s three-day rookie minicamp a huge success.
The demanding and oft-critical Haley said Sunday he was encouraged across-the-board with what he saw and heard from his seven draftees and a handful of undrafted rookie free agents.
“I’m excited. These guys have a good energy about them. There’s some good personalities in this group, which is important. You’ve got to have some personality on teams. And I would say I like that about these guys. It’s nice, pleasant to be around these guys. It doesn’t appear too big right now for them, which is a good sign.”
The drafted players who were allowed to be questioned one-by-one for a few minutes by a room full of media all seemed similarly pumped.
“It’s been exciting. It’s been a wonderful feeling,” said rookie safety Kendrick Lewis.
Added rookie linebacker Cameron Sheffield, “It’s been a great experience. I’m excited, excited to be here. Everything’s going well.”
If Haley discovered any warts on any of his young players that he didn’t already know about, he was not tipping his hand.
“I think there was a lot of learning on both sides,” he said. “We’re chomping at the bit, too, as a staff. We’re learning as much as they are. And that’s important because now we have a couple of weeks to get prepared and put our ducks in a row and be ready to roll here when the OTAs start.”
Lewis is the “other” safety the Chiefs drafted. Dogged by a slow time in the 40-yard dash in the NFL combine, he dropped to the fifth round, 131 players after KC made Tennessee safety Eric Berry the overall No. 5 player selected.
While stardom is forecast for Berry, Lewis knows he’ll have work to do.
He also knows that if it hadn’t been the slow time at the combine, he probably would have gone higher.
“It hurt me. But that’s life,” Lewis said. “You’ve got to take things and run with it. That was the situation I was put in. I’ve just got to move on from that situation and build from there. I’m with the Kansas City Chiefs and I’m going to do my best here.”
If it did nothing else, the three-day camp where he met his fellow rookies and got to work with his new coaches finally made Lewis feel like a professional football player.
e how NFL teams practice now. I’m happy.”
A three-year starter at Ole Miss, Lewis led his team in tackles despite his smallish size at 6-foot-1, 195. So what did seeing all those other rookies and being on the same field with Berry do to his confidence?
“It all goes back to football. It’s a game I’ve been playing since I was six years old,” he said. “It doesn’t change. When I get out on the field, it’s football, and I love it and I have fun doing it.”
The Chiefs will next assemble on May 17 for a three-day practice session that will include veterans as well as rookies.
Before sending his rookies off, Haley made sure they knew what he wanted them to spend the next two weeks doing.
“The biggest thing is the physical aspect. We had an hour-long presentation by our strength coach which was extremely thorough – `Here’s the lifts we’re doing, here’s the way we’re doing them’ – talking them through the runs, what they need to be doing. because they are behind. By the time they get back, they’ll be officially 26 workouts behind (the veterans) and in most cases, with the way these guys are working, 32 workouts behind. It’s like money. If you lose $200,000 you’re not getting it back. A very thorough presentation that I think should give these guys a chance if they do what they’re supposed to do, over these next couple of weeks, give them a chance to come in in better shape.”
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