ROOKIE MINI-CAMP

TODD HALEY: “Yesterday afternoon our rookies and free agents got into town. They had physicals, we had a team meeting last night, we had a little mini-combine this morning with them all which included height, weight, measurements, bench press, vertical jump, raw jump, and 40. Then we introduced them to our offense, defense and special teams then this afternoon we had a short practice.

Q: How did the players handle all of that?

HALEY: “Their heads were spinning. It’s a lot; there is a lot going on for them. A couple guys had flight delays, a guy missed his flight. They get in here and we rush them around and they get a lot of stuff thrown at them. They had an operations meeting today and a brief player development meeting today so they had a lot of stuff thrown at them. Their heads were spinning to stay the least.”

Q: What did you learn from the mini-combine?

HALEY: “There are some smaller school guys that didn’t necessarily go to the combine or we didn’t see their workout in person so it helps in that aspect. To me, as we get down the road and you start to add two, three or four years you have a little benchmark to look at guys and it is on your indoor facility and there is no advantage to anybody.”

Q: Have you been involved with that sort of thing in your previous NFL stops?

HALEY: “It is something I have been a part of a lot, probably seven or eight years in different places.”

Q: Do you have a number in mind in terms of how many tryout guys you may want to sign?

HALEY: “I don’t have a goal. We just hope there are some players and some guy that have enough qualities to put on the roster and into the rest of the off-season into training camp. I wouldn’t say we have a number, we just want to try and find the best guys.”

Q: How many players did you have here total?

HALEY: “We had 33. Eight draft picks, 12 free agents, some tryouts, we had a couple guys that hadn’t accrued a year that were allowed to participate that were on our roster. The big thing with these rookie camps is just having enough guys to have a decent practice.”

Q: Did you like what you saw on the first day?

HALEY: “Again, there are some physically good-looking guys. As far as the practice went, their heads are spinning. There were a lot of errors out there for sure. There is no doubt about it. We haven’t watched the tape yet but I know it is bigger than a handful. It’s hard to evaluate them off of one practice but if by the eye test, I would say there are some guys that passed it clearly.”

Q: Was it good to actually get all of these guys in here so you could see them with your own eyes?

HALEY: “Yeah. You put a lot of time in evaluating these guys and I know it is an exciting time for the scouts and it is an exciting time for anybody who has put any time in on the evaluation process. Most of these guys we have just seen on tape. At least coaches, we don’t get to go to practice to see them live other than the combine or maybe in here on a visit. To see them in the Chiefs uniform and helmet is a big thing, it makes it real.”

Q: Are you cautious about putting too much on their plates too soon?

HALEY: “No doubt. I am not a big believer in giving them too much because we do want to see and we want to kind of evaluate them athletically. We will give them enough to press it a little bit and keep the pressure on them. We will have two more tomorrow and one Sunday and then they will probably be ready for bed.”

Q: Did you like what you saw from DE Tyson Jackson?

HALEY: “I don’t know how much these guys have been doing the last few weeks. I am not talking specifically about him. It is early and hopefully by Sunday they get their feet under them. Like I told them, they are seven weeks behind the veterans right now in workouts and they have some catching up to do just to be able to come out and practice at the pace we want to practice. It is really early.”

Q: How important is it for these guys to get in here and get up to speed?

HALEY: “That is what I tried to point out. It is serious business. They will be 28 workouts behind when they come onto campus so they need to understand the severity of their situation. Just to give themselves an equal chance to compete they can’t waste a day. When they go back to school they have to be working out and once they get here they have to have to put the pedal to the metal. If they don’t, they are not going to have an equal chance to compete because they are already behind. It is an important situation to understand.”

Q: While it’s not your job to do contracts, how important is it for these guys to be here on time for training camp?

HALEY: “I don’t know that there is anything more important. Any day they miss is too much whether it is a contract or injury, they can’t afford to miss. Then there are some college issues. We have two guys right now, Ohio State and Cincinnati are the schools that don’t get out until June. So those guys are going to be a little further behind the eight ball.”

Q: Have you always been excited to coach rookies?

HALEY: “I always have but as a head coach it is even more exciting because this is the first rookie class that has guys that you had a hand in getting onto the team. It is a starting point and hopefully down the road we will be talking positively about it and not negatively.”

Q: What do you hope to get out of this weekend?

HALEY: “First and foremost, we are trying to orientate them to what we are doing, what to expect to give them (which is) a briefing to what is in store and what is ahead of them, the conditioning, the strength portion, to give them a little taste of the system. We don’t want them doing too much so they can’t even function. If you throw the whole playbook at them they are not going to be able to practice, it’s not possible. It’s more to orientate them to what we are doing, what we are about, but at the same time not putting too much in their laps and getting a chance to look at them physically and up close in personal in the pads running around. Also it’s seeing if they are able to comprehend what we are asking of them and seeing if they are able to turn that into doing it the right way. It is a definite evaluation weekend but it probably weighs more heavily to them figuring out what we are doing.”