{"id":793849,"date":"2026-07-30T18:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/793849\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:42:10","slug":"chiefs-training-camp-notebook-day-2-an-offensive-line-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/793849\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs training camp notebook Day 2: An Offensive line shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>\u2019 second full-team practice of training camp took place on a gloomy day in St. Joe, one that turned to a downpour by the time the Chiefs wrapped up practice with punt-team work. The Arrowhead Pride staff had boots on the ground to observe the second of three acclimation-period practices before full pads come on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know from Thursday\u2019s practice in St. Joe:<\/p>\n

For the second consecutive day, wide receiver Rashee Rice and cornerback L\u2019Jarius Sneed partially participated in practice due to planned rehabilitation. Defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott continues to be on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, not participating in practice.<\/p>\n

Rookie cornerback Mansoor Delane continued to participate in all phases of practice while wearing a yellow, non-contact jersey.<\/p>\n

A shift on the offensive line<\/p>\n

After veteran Jaylon Moore played right tackle for every starting snap on Day 1, rookie Kahlil Benson took the reins on Day 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally hard worker,\u201d Center Creed Humphrey described Benson after practice at the podium. \u201cHe\u2019s a very hard worker; you can tell it\u2019s important to him. He shows up every meeting, every walkthrough, every lift, everything with the right mindset.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a really strong player,\u201d Humphrey went on. \u201cFrom a physical standpoint. His punching power, things like that, he\u2019s really strong and really technical too. So we\u2019re excited about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Benson played right tackle with the first team, Moore manned the left tackle spot on the second-team offense while Esa Pole moved from left to right tackle for backup quarterback Justin Fields\u2019 plays.<\/p>\n

Second-year left tackle Josh Simmons continued to man the blind side for quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Humphrey also commented on his prospects.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh\u2019s potential is through the roof,\u201d Humphrey said. \u201cIf he keeps working the way he is, he\u2019s going to be a very talented player in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experimentation on defense<\/p>\n

During the first day of practice, safety Christian Roland-Wallace appeared to man the Nickel role the most for the Chiefs\u2019 starting defense. Chamarri Conner has been manning the strong safety spot, alongside veteran free safety Alohi Gilman, but defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo provided some clarity on that spot.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Conner] hasn\u2019t played as much Nickel; he\u2019s played more safety, but that\u2019s really to get some of the other guys ready,\u201d Spagnuolo said to reporters after Thursday\u2019s practice. \u201cI think we can always put him back there in a pinch, but this gives him a little bit more time deep that he didn\u2019t have last year. I think we\u2019ll still have some flexibility with him at both positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

It speaks to the rotation we saw on Day 2 in practice, where free-agent signing Kader Kohou appeared to man the Nickel role more often than he did on Day 1. In the same breath, rookie Jadon Canady appeared to see more time with the third-team defense than the first-team unit, but was still active, making at least one pass breakup on a route from the slot against the third-team offense.<\/p>\n

Third-year safety Jaden Hicks has primarily watched Conner and Gilman work on the Chiefs\u2019 starting defense, getting his reps with the second-team unit \u2014 although we haven\u2019t seen any Dime defense from Kansas City in camp yet. Spagnuolo talked about the plan for Hicks.<\/p>\n

\u201cJaden played a lot of different spots last year,\u201d Spagnuolo said. \u201cI told him, back in the OTAs, I\u2019d like to find one that he can just hone in on and master that while we experiment with some of the other guys. He is a guy that we\u2019ve had a little versatility with a year ago or the last two years; that won\u2019t change, we\u2019ll just find out where he\u2019s going to get slotted in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defensive end Ashton Gillotte is one of the patients for Spagnuolo\u2019s defensive experiments. He has been playing a de facto Linebacker role on the ball to present a five-man front for the Chiefs\u2019 defense, but the mad hatter is simply pushing the limits of his group, seeing what he can learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re experimenting with a bunch of things,\u201d Spagnuolo said when asked about Gillotte.\u201cWe\u2019ll do that with him, (linebacker) [Cooper McDonald]\u2026 unfortunately, we know Ethan Downs got hurt; he was another guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to be able to see if there\u2019s anybody in the defensive line group that can do other things,\u201d Spagnuolo went on. \u201cJust like\u2026 we\u2019d take (former Chiefs linebacker) Leo [Chenal] and put him with the defensive line every once in a while, so this is part of finding the versatility in guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other notes from practice<\/p>\n

Mahomes continued to shake rust off, looking to push the ball downfield more in this practice compared to the first. On one early throw in the seven-on-seven period, Mahomes put up a long ball to wide receiver Xavier Worthy towards the back corner of the end zone that landed in Worthy\u2019s hands, but slightly out of bounds with cornerback Nohl Williams in tight, trailing coverage.<\/p>\n

Williams has been in Worthy\u2019s hip pocket constantly through two days of work. On one red-zone pass play, Mahomes worked through his progression to a back-side route, but Williams was there to undercut it and secure an interception.<\/p>\n

Worthy and Mahomes found the deep-ball chemistry on one blitz-beating play; Worthy burned Kohou deep out of the slot without safety help, jogging after the catch the rest of the way into the end zone for a big-play touchdown.<\/p>\n

Tight end Jared Wiley continues to get a lot of work with the first-team offense, but on one play, he let a pass slip through his grasp, resulting in an interception for Mahomes against the starting defense.<\/p>\n

Backup quarterback Justin Fields was on point with his downfield passes on Thursday. One of his only off-target throws was to wide receiver Cyrus Allen, who made a spectacular catch on an in-breaking, intermediate route where the ball was severely behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s eager to learn,\u201d wide receiver Tyquan Thornton said of Allen after practice. \u201cHis route running is elusive; he\u2019s very good at the catch point.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kansas City Chiefs\u2019 second full-team practice of training camp took place on a gloomy day in St.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[142521,24538,99],"class_list":["post-793849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-analysis","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-training-camp","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}