Mitch Morse was working out when he heard his named yelled from about 50 feet away, through the glass windows that link the Kansas City Chiefs' weight room with the indoor practice field.
It was Chiefs general manager John Dorsey, dressed in his token gray "Kansas City Chiefs" sweatshirt and khakis, and he was standing next to Missouri nose tackle Josh Augusta.
Knowing he had Morse's attention, he pointed at Augusta before yelling again.
"Thumbs up or thumbs down?"
Morse, who played with Augusta for two years at Missouri, gave his thumbs up.
Such is the nuance of the Chiefs' local pro day.
19 players from big schools such as Missouri to small schools such as Central Missouri State were represented at the Chiefs' practice facility Friday morning in what Dorsey referred to as the best local pro day he's had from a talent standpoint in the five years he's served as general manager of the Chiefs.
List of Attendees
Name | Position | School
- Augusta, Josh | NT | Missouri
- Barnett, Dante | FS | Kansas State
- Burton, Deante | WR | Kansas State
- Culkin, Sean | TE | Missouri
- Frazier, King | RB | North Dakota State
- Fugate, Garrett | QB | Central Missouri State
- Harris, Connor | FB/ILB | Missouri
- Hatley, Rickey | DT | Missouri
- Hurrell, Jake | LS | Missouri
- Johnson, Austin | K | Southern Illinois
- Newsom, Donavin | ILB | Missouri
- Parks, Dalton | PT | Tulsa
- Pipkins, Pip | DT | Texas Tech
- Ross, Alex | RB | Missouri
- Scherer, Michael | ILB | Missouri
- Smithson, Fish | FS | Kansas
- Washington, Deron | FS | Pitt State
- Willis, Jordan | OLB | Kansas State
- Wyman, Matt | K | Kansas
That, Dorsey described, could be a result of a recent NFL rule change.
"The three closest Division 1 football teams across your area that are assigned to you, you can have them come in and work out," he said. "That's Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri—a bigger pool, which is awesome for us."
The Kansas City Chiefs hosted their annual Local Pro Day on Friday, April 7, 2017.
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In total, eight players from Missouri, two players from Kansas and three players from Kansas State ran positional drills for Dorsey and the Chiefs coaching staff. On this unique day that only comes once of year, the players dropped their gold, blue and purple uniforms in exchange for a color that unites them all—Chiefs red.
"It's kind of cool because it symbolizes the kids that have grown up in the area of Kansas City, and now what you're kind of seeing is that 1 percent we always talk about—who actually rose to the top from Pee Wee all the way up," he added. "Now, these guys have made it here. The Chiefs have always been their team, and you get a chance to work out.
"Like I told them, 'Listen, it's an opportunity for us to see you move around.' The draft's coming up in a couple of weeks, and it gives us one final evaluation process to put some pieces together."
Dorsey spent the majority of the workout on the defensive end of the field, occasionally speaking with coordinator Bob Sutton and DBs coach Emmitt Thomas.
And afterward, he admitted what he saw could make a difference come the weekend of April 27.
"It has enhanced [some player evaluations]," he said. "I think there are two or three guys here who I had known about, but by the time they left here, I was actually sharing this with Bob Sutton, I'm going, 'Hm, we have to go back and do some research.'"
In 2014, all Morse had to do was move down the road. Perhaps history repeats itself.