The Kansas City Chiefs held an abbreviated padless 10-10-10 practice to cap off the week on Sunday. 

The CBA requires the Chiefs to be out of pads after so many padded practice sessions. It might've not been the most exciting practice session for fans, but this provided a nice opportunity for players to ease into the week ahead of preseason Week 1 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

It also provided an opportunity for the team to work on certain fundamentals. . . 

Kickoff fundamentals in focus ahead of preseason Week 1

The Chiefs spent a good chunk of their special teams work on Sunday working on the fundamentals of the new kickoff return. 

I counted nearly a dozen repetitions of the NFL's new play. Notably, not a single player on the coverage team moved early. That's going to be one of the biggest challenges with the new rule as the coverage players cannot move until the ball hits the landing zone or a player fields the ball. Practice makes perfect there and it appears that Dave Toub has these guys prepared for the upcoming tilt with the Jaguars.

Lots of work on the new kickoff at #ChiefsCamp today. Seems like they're really trying to get the fundamentals down.

— Charles Goldman (@goldmctNFL) August 4, 2024

There's certainly some excitement in the air ahead of the first preseason game. Toub spoke to reporters about just how much he's looking forward to seeing it in action. 

Watching the return specialists, Nikko Remigio remains in the lead for kick-return duties. He looks the most natural out of all the return specialists they rotated through, however, I was impressed by Phillip Brooks, Louis Rees-Zammit, Mecole Hardman, and Skyy Moore as well. 

The player who popped the most for me as a lead blocker was second-year RB Deneric Prince. 

Some other names who I spotted on the top kick return team included Jack Cochrane, Deon Bush, Jaden Hicks, Ekow Boye-Boye, Noah Gray, Cam Jones, and Jared Wiley.

How about the Chiefs' offense and defense? 

The focus of the offense on Sunday was misdirection and screen passes. This started from the moment install began and through practice save for the few 11-on-11 team drills that were run-game focused. 

During the lighter 10-10-10 practices, you have to take the highlight plays with a grain of salt because the defense gives scout team or walkthrough looks in practice. Basically, they're encouraged to let plays succeed once a catch is made because they don't have pads and there is no contact outside of incidental contact.

We did see a few contested passes, most notably a play between Jaden Hicks and Montrell Washington. Hicks was in close coverage behind Washington and the ball was a bit underthrown. Washington tried to come back to the ball and actually got his hands on it, but Hicks played through the ground and knocked the ball free before Washington could control the catch. 

Several players return to practice from injury

With a lighter practice session, several players were allowed to get back on the field after missing time due to injury.

Chiefs WR Justin Watson (foot), OL Wanya Morris (shoulder), CB Nazeeh Johnson (hamstring), and S Deon Bush (ankle) were all back at practice on Sunday. No limitations for either of the three as they get back to work. It's a good sign for Morris, who left early on Friday with his injury. 

CB Kelvin Joseph (hamstring), LB Nick Bolton, and WR Kadarius Toney (ankle) were all held out of practice for the day. 

LG Joe Thuney (pec) continued working on the sidelines throughout practice.

S Justin Reid, DT Derrick Nnadi, DE Charles Omenihu, DE BJ Thompson, and DT Derrick Nnadi remain on injury lists with their respective ailments. 

WR Jaaron Hayek was not spotted at practice. No word on the reason for that quite yet. 

A special guest at practice on Sunday

The Chiefs had a former rival head coach in attendance at practice on Sunday. Former Las Vegas Raiders HC Jon Gruden was on the practice fields, adorned in full Kansas City garb next to several members of the coaching staff. Gruden and Chiefs HC Andy Reid have long had a good relationship, so inviting him out to camp seems to be an extension of that. We'll hear more about that decision from Coach Reid on Monday.

Quick hitters

• The verticality of the offense was notably versatile today. Hollywood Brown, Mecole Hardman, Xavier Worthy, and Nikko Remigio all caught deep passes. My favorite was Remigio's grab because it came between two defenders and he had to stretch out to avoid contact and make the grab. He bobbled the pass lost balance initially, and still made the grab.
  
• Mike Caliendo was back at left guard with the first-team offense today as Joe Thuney continues to work back from his injury. 
• I thought this was veteran WR Cornell Powell's best day since I've been out at camp. He had a really nice grab in between three defenders working with the second-team offense and Carson Wentz. He also beat Trent McDuffie on a quick-out during team drills later in practice. 
  
• Speaking of Trent McDuffie, he had the lone pick of practice today. Ian Book was the quarterback on the play and really threw it right to him. It would have probably gone for a long return, possibly even a touchdown. 
• George Karlaftis had a really nice pass batted on a play where he looped inside. The pass probably would have gone for six in the first team period of the day.
  
• The team worked on some outside zone runs with the first-team offense later in the day. Isiah Pacheco and Deneric Prince both had nice looks there. The interior run defense has mostly been stout, but I think the team will have some success on plays where they can get the D-Line moving horizontally. 
• Harrison Butker tried to challenge himself a bit extra during practice on Sunday. On his kicks, no matter the distance, it appeared like he was aiming for the wires that helped hold up a pole behind the uprights that had all of the film equipment used to capture the team's practice film. The wire is a significantly smaller target and he managed to hit it several times.

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