Nuts and Bolts of Tuesday's practice
- The Chiefs began Tuesday morning's practice inside because of lightning in the area, but after about 40 minutes of warming up and going through their positional periods, they were able to finish the last two hours of practice outside
- Rookie linebacker D.J. Alexander and defensive lineman Mike Catapano returned to practice after missing the last several practices with injuries
- Running back Charcandrick West left practice early with an illness
- After practice, head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder shared some information about a couple of injuries for the Chiefs
- Left tackle Eric Fisher has a high ankle sprain and is listed as day-to-day, and rookie LB Justin March, who has been a standout through OTAs and camp thus far, suffered a torn meniscus in Saturday's game and is having surgery on Wednesday in Kansas City
- For a complete list, here's the **FULL INJURY REPORT**
- The last day of Chiefs training camp is Wednesday, and it's also Military Appreciation Day
- Fans will also have the opportunity to get autographs from the entire team after practice
- Find all the details of training camp at http://www.chiefs.com/trainingcamp* *
The Chiefs took to the field after a brief rain 15min delay for the 17th day of Training Camp.
Top plays from Tuesday's practice
It might have been Alex Smith's best day of training camp so far in regards to chunk throws down the field.
He hooked up with several different receivers down the field that resulted in the crowd full of Chiefs Kingdom cheering with excitement.
Within about a five-minute span, Smith found Travis Kelce deep down the right sideline on a go route as he placed the ball perfectly over Kelce's shoulder for a 45-yard touchdown strike.
Moments later, Smith found rookie Chris Conley deep down the field (40-plus yards) on a post route that also resulted in a touchdown.
What made this even more impressive is that it happened as the conditions on the field worsened, as rain began coming down late in practice.
The best catch of the day came from second-year receiver Albert Wilson, who made a circus catch in the end zone as he secured a bobbling ball in traffic.
Here are a few other clips from today's practice:
Spotlight – Talking training camp with OC Doug Pederson
For the three hours or so that the players and coaches spend on the field during a typical training camp day, there is five times as much time spent in meeting rooms analyzing the few hours spent between the white lines.
"We start in the morning—we wake up between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m.," Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson explained. "Practice each day has already been scripted, but we review it, make sure things are the way we want them and then really it's time to just kind of gather your thoughts and get your practice schedule right."
The Chiefs typically take the field around 8:00 a.m. for practice each day.
Once practice is over around 11:00 a.m., all of the coaches immediately begin evaluations of that day's practice.
"We go up as a staff and watch the practice film and make our notes," he explained. "Then in the afternoon we get with the players and we go through practice again with them."
One of the things coach Andy Reid often talks about is that his coaches are really just teachers, and while there's plenty of teaching happening on the field during practice, this time spent in meeting rooms watching film is paramount in the development of the team.
This is also where veterans can really help the younger players.
After those meetings, the team gets together for their afternoon walkthrough. Then the players will eat dinner and then get together for special teams meetings.
But the day isn't over yet for the coaching staff.
"Coach Reid typically has a staff meeting with us after those meetings and then we're done by 10:00 p.m.," he said. "So 5:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. is a typical day."
It's just your standard 16.5-hour workday.
All that time dedicating to their work hopefully yields the kinds of results Pederson and the Chiefs offense experienced on Tuesday, when Alex Smith and company had one of their better days of camp.
"We saw the field good today; that's the bottom line," Pederson said. "Our guys did a nice job of getting open and Alex [Smith] did an excellent job connecting some of those throws, a couple deep balls to Kelce, launching Chris [Conley] deep, plus Jeremy [Maclin] a couple times.
"It's just all starting to kind of come together after that third week of camp."
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For all training camp information, check out***Chiefs.com/trainingcamp***