There were 33 players on the field this past weekend as the Chiefs went through a rookie mini-camp.

Each one of those men showed up on Thursday with dreams of various shapes and sizes. By the time they left Sunday afternoon, some of those dreams may have been, well … if not shattered then scarred a bit, as they came to understand over a three-day period what was required to survive in the world of professional football.

For draft choices like Tyson Jackson, Alex Magee and Donald Washington, it was the first taste of what figures to be several years in the business. They should be able to make a career of this game. At the other end of the spectrum were the eight tryout players who showed up hoping to leave an impression. It may have been the last time they put on a football helmet.

Between those two ends of the spectrum were guys like Pierre Walters, free agent linebacker out of Eastern Illinois.

When he played eighth-grade football, Walters was by his own description “a twig.” He was 5-10, 140 pounds. To say playing pro football was a pipe dream was more descriptive of Walters’ size than his dream. But he grew physically as he played at St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, one of the many suburbs west of downtown Chicago. By the time he graduated from St. Joe’s, he was 6-5, 218 pounds.

He showed up for the mini-camp at 6-5, 257 pounds. That’s down from the 275 pounds he carried last fall as a defensive end for the Panthers.

A twig he no longer is. He’s physically grown into the role. Now, he has to show he possesses the talent to play in pro football. That’s really what rookie mini-camp is all about; it’s the first step of whether they belong on the highest level of the game. These players are scouted, they are charted and they are worked out coming out of the college ranks.

But when they finally come to a team, whether as a draft selection or a college free agent, they have to start again at ground zero.

“The camp started out pretty tough,” Walters said. “I’m in the NFL now and it took a lot to adjust. You are definitely out of your comfort zone. I’m playing a different position and making that adjustment at this level. It’s tough. As things went on, I started to catch on, played a little bit faster and I felt like was improving throughout the weekend.”

At this time and this moment, there is great opportunity for a player like Walters with the Chiefs defense. Coming out of the Ohio Valley Conference as an all-league defensive end, he was considered a tweener: a guy that maybe too small to play defensive end and too big to play outside linebacker in the 4-3 scheme. But those types of players fit into the 3-4 as outside linebackers. That’s where the lighter Walters spent the mini-camp working. The adjustment of playing with a hand on the ground at defensive end, to standing up as an outside linebacker, is not an easy one to make.

”I played some outside linebacker as a senior in high school,” Walters said. “But any time you make that switch, you are going to have to do different things, like a lot more running and agility things. I prepared as much as I could coming into mini-camp. I lost some weight and I worked on my linebacker drops.”

Oh those drops. No matter that the scheme would call for the OLB to spend most of his time working the line of scrimmage and rushing the passer, there are times when the linebacker must drop into coverage. That’s what ends up separating the men from the boys at the position.

“You get some quick guy that comes out there and runs a route on you and wow, you can feel totally awkward, like you have not agility at all,” Walters said. “All I can do is work on it and get better.”

There’s plenty these rookies must work on. The defensive staff threw parts of the playbook at the rookies, but there’s so much more. They also learned that no matter how hard they were working at home, they were not in the kind of physical condition sought by the Chiefs coaching staff.

“I feel very blessed to be in this opportunity,” Walters said. “To me, that’s just as good as being drafted. They took notice of me and wanted me to be part of their ballclub. All those guys get is the opportunity and now I have the same opportunity.”

Walters has that one trait that Scott Pioli and Todd Haley seem to be looking for: versatility. He’ll drop the weight to play linebacker, but if the Chiefs called today and said we want you to put the weight back on and play defensive end, he’s ready to go.

“Whatever they need, I’m ready to do,” said Walters. “Whether it’s end or linebacker, whatever they think is best. I believe I’m athletic enough to play at a lighter weight. But I’ve been up to 286 before, so I know I can play at that weight, maybe more. I’m very versatile.”

Strength is not a problem for Walters. During the team’s mini-Combine on Friday he lifted 225 pounds 28 times in the bench press. What he must show at OLB is his speed, quickness and agility.

As he drove back to Charleston, Illinois where he’s been training at school, Pierre Walters will try not to ponder the possibilities of what the future may bring.

“I try not to, but I’m not going to lie, I’m a human being and the future goes through your mind,” he said. “It’s all in my hands. All I can do is pick up the system and play as hard as I can.”

That’s the only way to keep the dream alive.