Season Starts on Monday

Mar 24, 2008, 9:28:32 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

It’s time to kickoff the 2008 Chiefs season.

Yes, the calendar says it’s March and we’ve just celebrated Easter. The madness that is the NCAA basketball tournament is in full swing and baseball’s opening week is seven days away.

But the real question is: are you ready for some football?

Amidst the pounding of construction work going on with the team’s indoor practice facility, the Chiefs off-season program begins Monday morning. The team has approximately 50 players under contract and head coach Herm Edwards expects 45 or so bodies to work their way through the weight room and practice field this week.

It will end in the third week of June. A player will have the opportunity to get in 52 supervised workouts and a three-day mini-camp in the next 13 weeks. Edwards expects 75 to 80 percent of his roster will at least hit the 50-mark in workouts.

Edwards has been waiting for this date since the Chiefs closed out the disappointing 2007 season. He talked to some of his younger players then about the off-season program and their approach to getting better.

“You need to understand and adjust your priorities, that you define what you need to do to help this team be successful,” Edwards said. “It’s really that to start, an individual atmosphere. It’s a team thing because the players work out together, but it’s really what you need to do physically to become the player you want to be.”

While there are certainly effects on the team and its chemistry that can come from the off-season program, it’s not something that Edwards is really focusing on right now. It’s individual improvement.

Why? Because with 50 players under contracts, that leaves 30 spots open on the roster that will go to River Falls at the end of July. A good number of those 30 spots will be held by rookies, either those selected a month from now in the NFL Draft, or those signed after the selection meeting as college free agents.

That’s why Edwards altered the schedule on his off-season program, pushing back the on-field OTA team sessions to late May and early June, after the draft and when all players will be available to work with the team. Those sessions will start on May 19th.

“I think people understand now that we said we were going to re-build this roster through the draft and we are sticking to that plan,” Edwards said. “There’s also no question that we are going to have a number of rookies in our starting lineup come September.

“It made more sense to push those team workouts back a bit and allow those rookies a chance to work with everybody else. Especially in establishing a new offense. When it’s all so new and there are so many new players, then you should just teach them all at the same time.”

While many players have bonuses built into their contracts that pay them to workout in the off-season at the team’s facility, the program remains voluntary. Edwards is only able to designate his mini-camp as a mandatory off-season appearance.

Most of the no-shows in the program’s early weeks will be the most veteran players left on the team. Tony Gonzalez, Donnie Edwards, Brian Waters, Larry Johnson and Pat Surtain will likely not see Arrowhead and its facilities until late April, if then. Jared Allen cannot attend the program until he signs either a new contract with the team or the franchise player tender offer made to him about a month ago.

There will be some changes in the way the Chiefs operate in the lifting and condition program as Edwards and head conditioning coach Cedric Smith try to get the maximum amount of production out of the sessions.

“Right now, it’s about each one of these guys doing what is necessary to improve themselves,” Edwards said. “With some guys its strength, with some guys its speed, with others it’s quickness.

“It really comes down to them making sure they are getting better.”

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A former beat reporter who covered the Pittsburgh Steelers during their glory years, Gretz covered the Chiefs for the Kansas City Star for nine years. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Board of Selectors. He has been the senior columnist for the Chiefs web site since its inception.