For Todd Haley his first mini-camp as head coach of the Chiefs came down to one thing: where should he stand?

“It was three good days for me, five good practices and trying to just figure out where to stand half the time,” Haley said on Sunday, after the team wrapped up the voluntary veteran camp at the team’s facilities.

Obviously there was more to the camp than that. There was a lot of learning and a lot of teaching going on, and that included the head coach. Before this, Haley always had a group of players to work with and his time and attention were riveted there during a practice. Now as head coach, there’s an entire team to watch, both offense and defense. Down the road, special teams will be added to that as well.

The Chiefs head man likes what he saw from his group in the three days of work.

“I learned that they’re interested in listening, in trying to do it the way we’ve asked them to do it,” Haley said of the 64 players who took part in the work. “It is one of the criteria for being on this team: you’re going to have to do it the way we coach you to do it. I’ve learned that they’re listening and paying attention and trying to do it the ways we’re talking about. Now, we’ve got a long way to go and it doesn’t mean we’re perfect.”

The Chiefs entered the weekend with 67 players on the roster and 64 of those players took part in the voluntary work.

Those in the house found a coach demanding up tempo practice work.

“He very definitely has a way he wants us to practice and he made that very plain from the start,” said safety Jarrad Page. “If there’s something not quite right, he makes it known real quick.”

Haley said the weekend’s work was not about evaluating players, even with the NFL Draft now just a few days away.

”I told the players that you’re not going to make the team or not make the team this weekend,” Haley said. “You’ve got a better chance of making the team lifting and running the way we want it done.

“I think you try not to do it (evaluation) because you’re liable to make a mistake if you go off of your first mini-camp without pads and a couple days of learning. I think you could quite possibly make some mistakes if you judge too quickly. We stressed that.”

What was stressed was the program Haley wants his players to come to understand and embrace. The term “clean slate” has been used quite a bit by the new head coach and that continued in the camp as the players wore red helmets without the arrowhead logo on either side. The absence was not happenstance.

“Everything I’m doing I’m doing with a purpose,” said Haley. “The thought process there is we’re starting at ground zero. We’re looking for guys who want to be Chiefs.”

The 2009 Chiefs began the process of earning back their arrowheads over the weekend.

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