The Kansas City Chiefs will officially wrap up their three-day rookie minicamp on Monday.
While there isn’t much work you can do at this point in the offseason, this unpadded three-day camp provides draft picks, undrafted free agent signings, and tryouts alike to leave a first impression on the coaching staff in Kansas City. What can you do while on the practice field and in the meeting rooms to catch the attention of Andy Reid and company?
Given the contact limitations at the Chiefs’ rookie minicamp, it’s a challenging task. For first-round rookie LT Josh Simmons , it’s a more difficult ask than most. Simmons is still recovering from the knee injury that prematurely ended his final season with Ohio State. Because of that, he’s not yet able to participate fully in practices.
Chiefs LT Josh Simmons’ talent on partial display for Andy Reid
The Chiefs clearly aimed to limit the stress on Simmons’ knee after a busy pre-draft travel schedule. Despite being unable to participate fully in practice at this juncture, Simmons still managed to catch Big Red’s attention with the individual work he did during practice on Saturday.
“Josh (Simmons) is doing mostly the individual work,” Reid said. “We try to keep him out of the team stuff if we’re going against a defense, so just taking it slow here. We’re just kind of getting a feel of where he’s at with this. He had kind of a heavy-traffic travel schedule during the 30-visit thing, so just make sure that thing’s strong. He looks like he’s got some talent there, Matt (Derrick) doggonit. That’s a good thing, right? For what we can do. That’s a plus.”
The Chiefs are proceeding cautiously with Simmons, as they should. The last thing you want to happen is for the rookie to have a setback in his recovery. The fact that he can showcase his talent to Coach Reid just in the individual work is a positive sign and speaks to the progress he’s already made in his recovery.
Simmons could be reintegrated even further when the team meets for the first of three voluntary OTA sessions later this month .