What matters and doesn't matter in Chiefs training camp; 2023 edition

Looking again at what is important as football returns, using some of the current "hot" topics (from Chris Jones to Justyn Ross to Kadarius Toney)

FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, sort of.

After a summer of celebration that seemed to feature the Chiefs at every turn (and the NFL universe finally accepting as a whole that Patrick Mahomes is the best football player alive), the 2023 season is finally kicking off. Veterans (with a notable exception as of the time I’m writing this) and rookies have reported to camp, and the Chiefs are officially starting off their effort to repeat as Super Bowl champs.

I’ve written previously how much I love this time of the year. It’s a time where optimism reigns and every team feels like a contender (or at least on the right path). That optimism, combined with the lack of actual football for months upon months (it felt shorter this summer, possibly due to the whole “Chiefs celebrating their Super Bowl win at every turn” thing, but I digress), causes us to absolutely devour every single training camp clip or image we get.

Of course, fans (and media) being excited and desperate for content has consequences. I’ve written about this previously, but I think it’s worth revisiting every season to remind myself (and all of you) that not everything is as important as it seems in training camp. Here’s the problem:

A corollary consequence of us starving for real football news is that everything feels like it’s wildly important. Much like to the starving/parched man all things taste incredible and all water goes down smooth, for us, every single play in every single practice feels as though it tells us a story. Everything is a storyline. Every tweet is a reason to get psyched or despair.

In other words, we treat everything like it matters deeply in July, when in fact it does not. And this offseason is no exception, as I’ve already seen approximately a thousand extended arguments break out between Chiefs fans regarding padless practices long before the season is set to begin.

And with that, let’s once again talk about what matters and what doesn’t in training camp, this time trying to use examples from the current storylines. I’ll borrow some language from the previous article and add a few new topics, but this is also an opportunity to talk about Chris Jones not reporting to camp, Ritchie James making waves, Justyn Ross getting 1st team reps, Justin Reid putting on muscle, and more.

And with that (deep breath) let’s talk some 2023 Chiefs camp!