11 Chiefs players to watch when the pads come on
Football is about to become more real. Here are the guys I'm most closely watching as it happens.
Chiefs training camp has arrived in all it’s glory, and along with that, approximately a million little storylines to follow. As I write about a few days ago, some of them interest me (and matter) and some do not.
But you know what DOES matter? Practices with pads. As we’ve talked about multiple times here, football without pads is barely football. It changes the entire dynamic of reps and how we can gauge what a player is doing. This is true not just on the line of scrimmage, but all over the field. When the contact is dialed way down, it’s impossible to get a legitimate idea as to how a player is performing in 1x1 drills, and it has an effect as to who stands out in team drills. That’s why “wait until the pads come on” is said with a cautionary tone every year when we start to get excited (or worried) about a particular player.
Well, the pads are coming on Friday and football is about to become significantly more real in St. Joseph. As though we haven’t already had entirely too much fun watching the offense already…
(For terrific camp coverage, be sure you’re following my friends and colleagues at
on X/Twitter)Pads coming on changes everything. Offensive and defensive line play becomes an actual simulation of in-game play. Receivers and pass defenders in the secondary ratchet up the level of contact significantly, becoming a much more accurate look at how a player can handle what they’ll need to do on Sundays. And finally, the intensity of practice itself takes a big step forward.
For all those reasons, it becomes a much bigger deal how players perform once the pads come and becomes more predictive as to what we’ll see when the season starts. And through that, it becomes a much bigger deal where the coaches choose to give first-team reps (as they’re reacting to what they see when the reps are more reflective of real football).
With that in mind, I thought it would make sense to talk about what players I’ll be keeping a close eye on as the football becomes real. Some are new to the roster, others are guys I’m watching to see if they take a step forward.
While there aren’t a lot of true position battles going on in Kansas City (or a lot of questions as to who will make the roster), there are still a lot of players I’m curious about. Basically, players I think will have a large impact on the Chiefs’ chances at pulling off a threepeat in 2024 are who I’m watching (guys who affect the floor and the ceiling outside of Mahomes/Kelce/Jones). You could think of this as part 2 of my training camp preview pieces after what I wrote last week if you like. All I know is that I’m excited for football to be back!
Let’s talk some Chiefs I can’t wait to see in pads, and why.