Why this week is the worst of Chiefs training camp for players
The Kansas City Chiefs have one more week of training camp practices before they'll say goodbye to Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph for the remainder of the year. This particular week of practice is one that the players absolutely loathe compared to the rest of training camp. The aches and pains from the […]
The Kansas City Chiefs have one more week of training camp practices before they'll say goodbye to Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph for the remainder of the year.
This particular week of practice is one that the players absolutely loathe compared to the rest of training camp. The aches and pains from the first preseason game of the year are that much more noticeable and the season is so close that you can taste it.
Shortly after the Saints game, former Chiefs RT Mitchell Schwartz took to the app formerly known as Twitter to explain the crux of why this week of camp is the absolute worst for players.
"But for real, this is the worst week of training camp, between (preseason) games 1 and 2," Schwartz wrote. "You’ve now traveled and played another team and have another game coming, but you’ve got to go back to St. Joe and put the pads on this week for camp practices. Hard to flip the switch back to camp mode."
Beyond the difficulty of switching back to camp mode from game mode, the results of the game tend to matter when it comes to the intensity of practice. The Chiefs ended the game with a big mental error from the fourth-string offense, but the first-team offense and defense didn't exactly pass with shining colors either.
"The ones – we have to pick up the tempo
there on both sides of the ball," Chiefs HC Andy Reid said following the game. "Not good enough. We have some things to work on there."
Rest assured that they'll be working on those things in practice on Tuesday. It's going to be mentally and physically draining, especially the long-drive drills at the end of practice.
"That was the hardest part of training camp so far," Kelce explained following a long-drive period in 2019. "Padded practice after the first preseason game, you know you've got three (practices). You know that you've got another one coming. How are you mentally going to attack that part of practice? Sure enough, we came out of it a lot better."
In the end, the players don't have to like it, but it all serves the purpose of making the team better.
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Featured image via Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
