{"id":796329,"date":"2026-07-31T23:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T23:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/796329\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T23:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T23:21:11","slug":"chiefs-rookie-mansoor-delane-is-playing-one-handed-early-in-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/796329\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs\u2019 rookie Mansoor Delane is playing \u2018one-handed\u2019 early in camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early on, most vibes coming out of the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>\u2019 training camp at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph have been positive through three full-squad workouts.<\/p>\n

One unfortunate exception has been the status of rookie cornerback Mansoor Delane, the sixth overall selection in April\u2019s draft. Delane suffered a shoulder injury earlier this summer in organized team activities (OTAs). He was reportedly just cleared for practice<\/a> as rookies arrived to St. Joseph last week.<\/p>\n

Delane has participated in every practice dating to the rookie portion last weekend. He has worn a yellow, non-contact jersey each time.<\/p>\n

Speaking after Friday\u2019s session, head coach Andy Reid described Delane as in an unusual position of practicing while still recovering from injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a tough kid,\u201d the coach remarked. \u201cHe was a state wrestling champ and all that stuff. Tough kid. He wants to be out there. He wants to do everything. We\u2019re not allowing him to use that arm. He\u2019s out there playing kind of one-handed. Until he\u2019s completely clear, we\u2019re going to keep an eye on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

As such, Delane\u2019s focus in camp so far has been on what his feet can do, as opposed to arm placement while covering receivers.<\/p>\n

While Reid stressed the importance of time, fans may see his work lessened in the coming days as the team transitions to padded practices. Still, the rookie is getting valuable work in during his first camp working with Chiefs\u2019 defensive backs coach Dave Merritt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we get into the contact stuff,\u201d Reid predicted, \u201cwe\u2019ll back off a little bit on him there. But he\u2019s working his tail off and doing what he can do with that. It\u2019s great for him because he has to work his feet, his techniques, his level, how high are you rising up as guys are making moves on you, are you pedaling, what are you doing there. It actually works to his benefit in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Chiefs hope for Delane to join with second-year cornerback Nohl Williams for a pair of young starters at an increasingly expensive position. Williams has been one of the stars of camp so far. Reid is happy with the work Williams has put in with Merritt ahead of Year Two.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp to this point, he\u2019s done a nice job,\u201d Reid observed of Williams. \u201cHe had a good offseason program\u2026Out here, he\u2019s been strong where he can bend, maintain that bend and still move with his feet. Dave overemphasizes all of that: use your feet [and] then be able to build cushions from there and angles. He\u2019s done a nice job of that. He\u2019s really worked hard at that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early on, most vibes coming out of the Kansas City Chiefs\u2019 training camp at Missouri Western State University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[15977,24538,349,99],"class_list":["post-796329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-news","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-training-camp","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796329","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=796329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}