KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With temperatures approaching 100 degrees and the heat index soaring above the century mark, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid opted to close his team’s three-day minicamp early and sent his players home for their offseason break before training camp.
Chiefs rookie cornerback Tremon Smith intercepted a pass from Chad Henne during a minicamp practice at the team’s training complex on June 13, 2018 in Kansas City, Mo. (Photo courtesy Chiefs.com)
“We’ve had great work and a great turnout,” Reid said at his final media availability of the offseason. “Normally today we only do a group install period anyway so it’s a short period. We don’t do much on this day even we did ask them, other than the run part.”
That “run part” also played a role in cancelling the planned practice. Reid traditional conducts a conditioning test on the final day of camp with players running gassers after practice to test their physical status.
“I wanted to get that run knocked out when it was – we’re supposed to get close to 100 today,” Reid said. “I didn’t want to put the guys out there in that kind of heat running around. Normally we do the run at the end of practice and we’ve been fortunate where it hasn’t been too hot. I just thought we that probably needed to back off.”
The Chiefs are not alone among NFL teams cancelling their final minicamp workout. New England, Miami and New Orleans also cancelled their final minicamp practices.
It also helped that Reid felt good about the attendance and effort of his team during the first 12 practices between the optional OTA period and the mandatory minicamp.
“Listen, I’m proud of the guys for the work that they did this offseason,” Reid said. “We had great attendance and the effort was great.”
With the limitations of offseason workouts, however, Reid reserves to wait until training camp before pronouncing what he thinks about this year’s team.
“I would tell you that it’s like a baby, we’re trying to figure out what they’re going to be when they grow older,” Reid said. “With some young talent that’s unknown, we’re all anxious to see how that develops but let’s let it develop and let’s see how it goes but it’s exciting.”
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Matt Derrick is the lead beat writer for ChiefsDigest.com. Use the contact page to reach him or find him on Twitter: @MattDerrick.
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