By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Chiefs have now completed 10 out of their 19 training camp practices at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph.
The Chiefs practiced for nearly 2.5 hours in full pads on a mild, muggy and cloudy Thursday morning. Temperatures were in the low-to-mid 70s, but the humidity was 94% at the start of practice.
The Chiefs had a few more players sitting out Thursday. Corner Reese Taylor (hamstring), defensive end Charles Omenihu (calf) and linebacker Drue Tranquill sat out, though the reason for Tranquill's absence wasn't given.
Omenihu, Taylor and Tranquill were present Thursday, but not in pads.
L'Jarius Sneed (knee), Kadarius Toney (knee), Jody Forston (shoulder) and Mike Danna (calf) are still out. Receiver Ty Scott still hasn't appeared, nor has Chris Jones. Linebacker Isaiah Moore and corner Nazeeh Johnson are on injured reserve.
Receiver competition
The Chiefs once again have a number of young, new and capable wide receivers competing for time with the first-team offense this training camp.
In particular, Richie James, Rashee Rice and Justyn Ross have been the most exciting additions.
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy says the competition in that room has been intense and respectful, as they absorb a ton of different plays.
"It's a really good group of guys who support each other when there is a lot of competition," Nagy said. "I think they're all excited right now. We're kind of at the peak of our volume of plays in training camp."
"It's a bit of an overload right now, which stresses them mentally, which means physically, they really have to take it to the max. When we get to preseason, we pull back a little bit and in that mode, we're able to let them play fast, because there's not as much volume."
Receivers Skyy Moore and Cornell Powell each strong days Thursday, as did Justin Watson. Tight end Travis Kelce was also targeted fairly often during team drills Thursday.
Other standouts and observations
With Omenihu and Danna sidelined, that opened the door for defensive ends Malik Herring and Joshua Kaindoh to get a healthy dose of the first-team reps at that position. George Karlaftis and Daniel Wise also saw first-team reps Thursday.
Corner Jaylen Watson had a great day on the field. He had a pass breakup against Justin Watson in the early portion of practice and another on Justyn Ross later.
Jaylen also got home on a corner blitz during team drills and had a would-be sack on Mahomes.
One long drive
The final 11-on-11 period of practice Thursday featured a 16-play drive with the first offense against the first defense. Nagy says that Andy Reid calls it the "long drive drill" to help simulate some real game experiences.
Both sides had their moments during that drive. Skyy Moore and Justin Watson each had two catches, while Clyde Edwards-Helaire had a nice run on a toss sweep.
Defensively, Bolton tipped a long ball to himself for an interception. George Karlaftis and Bolton each had a tackle for loss. Derrick Nnadi had a nice hit on Edwards-Helaire at the line of scrimmage as well.
Mahomes still learning, picking Blaine Gabbert's brain
When one watches Patrick Mahomes on the field, and sees what’s he’s achieved already, one wouldn’t think he has anything else to learn.
Well, learning is exactly what Mahomes loves to do. He's been actively talking with his backup Blaine Gabbert this training camp to try and get some insight into not only Gabbert’s game, but also Tom Brady’s.
Gabbert was Brady’s backup in Tampa Bay the previous three seasons.
"Seeing how Tom operated and how Patrick operates, I'm just kind of trying to bring ideas to both sides of the table and ultimately help Patrick be better than he already is," Gabbert said. "He's a phenomenal player right now, but he's kind of an open book and open mind to see how other guys play the game."
"What Pat does is, he uses that to make him better," Nagy added, "because he doesn't think he has all of the answers. So, he wants to learn more from others. See how others have done it. A guy like Tom. Blaine has been really, really good with that stuff and it's meshed really well."
Nagy, of course, was the Chiefs' offensive coordinator in 2017 during Mahomes' rookie season before Nagy took the head coaching job in Chicago.
Fast forward six years, and Nagy says there's one area where Mahomes has improved on by leaps and bounds.
"He's really good with protections," Nagy said of Mahomes. "Understanding what defenses are throwing at him. These defensive coordinators are really good and they love to throw a lot of different looks at you and change the backend pre-snap. So, film study, but also him understanding and taking what we do schematically with our protection scheme."
Nagy also says Andy Reid has given Mahomes "a platform to use his voice" to help younger players and provide his input on how the offense can get better.
Noah Gray a steady hand
A lot of the attention on the Chiefs' tight end room the last number of years now has been focused on Travis Kelce for obvious reasons, but that whole position group has performed well this training camp, especially Noah Gray.
The third-year pro and fifth-round draft pick out of Duke has regularly worked with the first-team offense this camp and has caught everything thrown his way.
Gray says his expectation for himself this season is to simply help make the team better.
"I'm just going to keep working hard and being the best teammate I can possibly be," Gray said. "That's all, I think, the coaches and my teammates ask of me. I'm not going to try and do too much and just do my job."
Gray had 31 catches for 336 yards and two touchdowns through the regular and postseason last season.
What's next
The Chiefs have practice again on Friday morning at 9:15.
Caught on tape
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.