KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs personnel met with the media Monday.
VICE PRESIDENT OF SPORTS MEDICINE AND PERFORMANCE RICK BURKHOLDER
BURKHOLDER: “A couple updates from the last two games. Marcus Kemp you know has been placed on injury reserve. In the Pittsburgh game he tore his left knee ACL, MCL and has a meniscal injury. He will have surgery tomorrow with Dr. Dan Cooper in Dallas. That’s Kemp. From the Pittsburgh game also, Breeland Speaks injured his right knee; MCL sprain and a meniscal injury. He will have surgery tomorrow in Houston with Dr. Walter Lowe. From the 49ers game Saturday night, Chad Henne has a right high ankle sprain and a fractured ankle. He will have surgery tomorrow with Dr. Robert Anderson in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I know you have questions on what that means for the roster but that is not my deal. Coach Reid speaks tomorrow and I’m sure him and Brett Veach will get together on that. Thank you.”
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR STEVE SPAGNUOLO
OPENING STATEMENT: “I don’t have a lot to say, we’re glad with the three preseason games. Excited for the young guys in this fourth one, we have a lot to do right now really getting ready for our first regular-season game. I’m sure Andy (Reid) will talk to you a little bit more about that, with that I will open it up.”
Q: Do you think you have seen enough from the first team defense to feel good for the first week?
SPAGNUOLO: “I never feel like I’ve seen enough. I always feel like we need 100 more reps, but that’s not the way it is. When we went into the game this past Saturday, what is it Monday? I was really looking to see if we could get in an adverse situation and fight out of it. The very first drive we were a little disappointed we had the penalty on third and seven, it gave them a first down, San Francisco got going a little bit. I was happy with the way we rallied with the fourth and one, so that was positive. We weren’t as a group overall happy with the run defense. I thought it was leaky. There weren’t a lot of big ones that busted out. There was one 13-yard one on a third and one that I thought we should have stopped. So, all in all I think we still have a bit of work to do and we have a short amount of time to do it. I trust the guys will be focused in, certainly getting through this fourth preseason game and into the opener.”
Q: What is the depth like without Breeland Speaks?
SPAGNUOLO: “That will change it a little bit but Emmanuel (Ogbah) has been, he battled an injury early and is fighting his way back. The other three guys have done a nice job. We just need to get some reps underneath everyone’s belt and away we go. We’ll have to make up for it somehow.”
Q: Going into this game, what do you want to see from the young guys and guys that are on the bubble looking to make the team?
SPAGNUOLO: “It’s all about production in this business, so we’ll be looking for the guys that’ll be making plays. That young group, to me, has been giving tremendous effort. They get a lot more reps obviously in the preseason games. When I looked at our sheets that have the production, these young guys, some have over 100 plays already, which is good. They need that. I’d like to see more than anything the guys not make the same mistake twice. That tells me maybe they’re picking it up. That’ll be one of the things we focus on.”
Q: For a guy like Ben Niemann who seems like he can seemingly play all the positions of inside linebacker, how valuable is a player like that?
SPAGNUOLO: “We said this right back at training camp, we are trying to identify backups that are smart, dependable and durable. Dependable guys are usually the guys you say okay if somebody went down, we can put him there. Ben (Niemann) will have to do that. He’s focused mostly on Mike linebacker now but Matt (House) and Britt (Reid) have oiled him up a little bit if he had to play the weak side. All those linebackers that back up, will probably end up having to play all three spots.”
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR ERIC BIENIEMY
Q: With the injuries to Chad Henne and Marcus Kemp, how does that impact the offense moving forward?
BIENIEMY: “Unfortunately, injuries happen, but one thing I do know is that our medical staff, our head coach and our personnel staff are going to make the best decisions for us moving forward. You never want to see anyone get hurt in this industry, but one thing we understand is that we have two young guys, we have to get them up and coming and they have to go play.”
Q: Do you feel that either Kyle Shurmur or Chase Litton is ready to be the backup QB?
BIENIEMY: “I will say this; these guys have done one heck of a job since they’ve been here. (Quarterbacks) Coach (Mike) Kafka does a great job with them. We all sit in that room together. They’ve made the most of every opportunity. You’ve seen some good and you’ve seen some bad, but one thing I will say about both of those guys, those two kids are very, very competitive and they want to be on an NFL roster.”
Q: How is Litton a better player now compared to last season?
BIENIEMY: “He’s a year into it, so one thing that gives him an opportunity of is that the experience of being around it, saying it, speaking it, hearing the language every day, being in that room with the players that he is in there with and being in there with us, with the coaching staff, obviously, that gives him a great deal of experience. But also, too, the young kid, Kyle, he has done an outstanding job, as well.”
Q: Did either of the two young QBs show you something different against the 49ers that maybe you had not seen before out of them?
BIENIEMY: “Both of these kids have been pretty consistent. One thing these kids do, they come out and are very stoic in their behavior. The want to make sure that they get the call right. They want to make sure that they are seeing it the right way. But also, too, they want feedback on the sidelines. These guys are good kids. They’re competitive. One thing I’m excited about is just watching these guys play.”
Q: Does your approach to this fourth preseason game change at all now that Henne is injured?
BIENIEMY: “I think what it does is that it gives these two kids an opportunity to go out and display what they are and who they are. I’m excited. I’m sure they’re excited. But like I said, you never really want to see anyone get hurt. Like I’ve always said, in this industry, without some bad luck, some of us wouldn’t have any good luck at all.”
Q: What type of value does the fourth preseason game present?
BIENIEMY: “I appreciate the opportunity that some of these young kids get. They get to apply for a job, whether it is here or with 31 other teams. They get an opportunity to put what they are and who they are on tape. That is what’s important about this last game. These kids get an opportunity to go out there and play 60 minutes of football in an NFL game. The thing about it, some tough decisions have to be made, but they don’t necessarily have to be tough if you go out there and put consistent behavior on tape that says, ‘You know what? This kid here is worthy enough to be a part of what we want to build.’”
QB PATRICK MAHOMES
Q: What kind of loss is it in the quarterback room with Chad Henne’s injury?
MAHOMES: “It’s definitely going to be different with Chad (Henne), just because he was that veteran guy that was out there on the field. We have a lot of trust in these young guys to come in and step in and make plays. They’ve done a good job of picking up stuff, so we’re going to keep bringing them along and letting them learn. I mean, Chad will still be there in the room helping out as far as game planning goes and everything like that.”
Q: How soon did you know the injury was as serious as it was?
MAHOMES: “I didn’t know until the next day when they went in there and got the tests done. He’s still in good spirits and stuff like that. Hopefully we’ll be able to get him back at some point.”
Q: What have your conversations been like with Kyle (Shurmur) and Chase (Litton) as the fourth preseason game is a little more important to the both of them?
MAHOMES: “Definitely. Being able to go out there and get the majority of the playing time for both of them and being able to go out there and do things, run the offense the right way. That’s the thing with this league, it’s the ‘next man up’ mentality that guys have to come in with knowing that whatever opportunity comes, they have to take advantage of it.”
Q: Does Chase Litton have any extra benefit from being here for the past year, being in the room, does that give him an edge at all?
MAHOMES: “When you’re a year in, you have more knowledge of the offense but both guys have worked hard. Both guys are really intelligent. Both guys have learned and picked up stuff and aren’t making the same mistakes that they made earlier in training camp and stuff like that. We have a lot of trust in those guys that they can come in and make the offense move the right way.”
Q: In what ways have you tried to help the guys in giving opportunities, whether in the room or on the practice field?
MAHOMES: “I think the biggest thing for me was telling them the mistakes I made and how to eliminate those. I think that was a good thing Alex (Smith) did for me in my rookie season. You’re trying to find a plan, you’re trying to find the best way to learn this information and process it as fast as you can. So, I’m trying to help them as much as I can and tell them ways I picked it up and was able to learn stuff faster than the other people were when they came into the league.”