During a red zone drill Saturday, Chase Daniel threw a pass to his right that was nearly picked off by cornerback Justin Rogers.

Rogers bobbled the football twice before it flung in the air and into the hands of De'Anthony Thomas, who snatched and ran with it for a touchdown.  The touchdown was just one of the many moments of a strong day and overall camp for Thomas, who continued to impress coaches, fans and fellow teammates.

"In this offense, he's doing great," linebacker Derrick Johnson said of Thomas. "He's one of those guys that's going to create the mismatch for linebackers. He's going to help us this year."

Thomas, through nine days of practice, has shown a knack for finding open holes with blazing speed. But to Johnson, the success doesn't stop there. So far, he's been impressed with all Chiefs running backs.

"I've seen a lot of improvement," Johnson said.  "Cyrus Gray has been a guy that's running with that second and third team. [He] gave me a move yesterday that I got to get him back for.

"It's one of those things where the level of competition from the twos and threes are going way up. I mean, Knile Davis, I can't say enough about him [and] you know Jamaal (Charles) is doing his thing, so we got a lot of depth here at the Chiefs right now, especially at the running back position."

On the other side of the ball, safety Malcolm Bronson shined with the first-team in a secondary suddenly hit with injury concerns.

On Friday, it was announced that safety Sanders Commings underwent surgery on a broken fibula, a fact that may open the door on a roster spot for Bronson, who has played well in the absence of others. Saturday at practice, Bronson showed he belonged by breaking up passes to the end zone on two separate occasions.

"He's a smart, smart kid," Coach Reid said of Bronson. "He's not the biggest kid. He's smart and he understands the scheme, he understands leverage on receivers [and] he's not afraid to get in there and tackle."

At the right guard position, rookie Zach Fulton continued to get first-team reps Saturday.

"He's played solid football is what he's done," head coach Andy Reid said of Fulton. "He's a good football player and he showed us that he's probably a little bit better than we anticipated for where we picked him. "

That said, Reid maintained that nothing is being determined yet.

As training camp carries on, younger players like Thomas, Bronson and Fulton are showing improvement as they get acclimated, and that trend will be important as the Chiefs head into their first preseason game on Thursday.

Practice Bits:

• CB Marcus Cooper (spasms in hamstring) and DT Kyle Love (ankle sprain) left practice early
• S Eric Berry did not practice (right heel)
• DL Jermelle Cudjo (hamstring), WR Mark Harrison (hamstring), WR Junior Hemingway (hamstring), WR AJ Jenkins (hamstring), RB Charcandrick West (hamstring)
• DL Mike Catapano did not practice (flu)
• TE Demetrius Harris did not practice (excused absence)
• RBs Joe McKnight (knee) and CB David Van Dyke (hamstring) did not practice
• K Cairo Santos kicked for the entire practice; Ryan Succop did not kick; Head coach Andy Reid said it had nothing to do with injury and called it Santos' day. Ryan Succop is expected to kick tomorrow

* *