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10 Takeaways from Chiefs Media Availability on Friday

The Chiefs coordinators had an opportunity to speak with the media

There were no injury updates to report.

Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson

Offensive coordinator Doug Pederson had a lot of good things to say about Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

"His competitiveness, the toughness – mental and physical – the way he leads his football team, the throws down the field, the way he can extend plays with his legs," Pederson said of what makes the reigning MVP stand out. "There are so many good things that he does that helps that offense and that team win. To have 43 or 42 touchdown passes in the last 18 or 19 games is incredible – and the same thing with his interception ratio up there. Great player, obviously he's tough to defend. But you know what, there's a lot of great quarterbacks in this league and he's the next one up."

Pederson addressed the five turnovers and last game and how the Chiefs don't intend for that trend to carry over into Monday night.

"We feel like we're a really good team offensively and you just can't give your opponent that many extra attempts, possessions," he said. "We don't spend a ton of time just brow-beating our guys about turnovers, you have to protect the football, that's what you're in this business for and they know that they have to protect the ball. Obviously it starts with the center-quarterback exchange with the snap and it goes from there. To go back and look and say 'hey, with the lead late in the game, you really had four turnovers at the time, you have a chance to win that football game, you clean up a couple things and you beat those elite teams in the league and that's what we have to do.'"

Pederson explained what the Chiefs need to do to be better on third down.

"You have to do well on first and second down," he said. "Teams that have gone into Lambeau and won have controlled the ball and controlled the clock – and it puts an emphasis, a little bit, on that. Being successful, getting those four, five, six yards on first down and being in those third-and-manageable-type situations and then converting. We struggled last week to convert a third down. We have to do that this week – execution – but keeping ourselves manageable helps us do that."

Pederson addressed the progress of wide receiver Albert Wilson so far this season.

"He's coming off a bit of an injury there at the end of camp and then that first game he had a little bit of a shoulder issue," he said. "He's working himself back into that playing shape. He's a guy that's small in stature but very strong and powerful and an excellent slant runner. It's a situation, too, with him that we've got to get him involved a little bit more early in football games and keep him coming along because he is such a valuable weapon for us and he's explosive once he gets the ball in his hands."

Defensive coordinator Bob Sutton

Defensive coordinator Bob Sutton described what he saw in Rodgers on tape.

"I think Aaron Rodgers is probably playing that position as good as anybody, probably better than anybody in the league right now -  based on what he's done the last two or three years," he said. "He's a great football player, he has great arm talent, excellent speed in his release, very smart, very competitive. You add then the mobility factor into it and that makes it a real challenge for any defense. He's playing at a really high level. I think he finished last year at 112 quarterback rating (112.2). He's at 128 right now (128.4), almost 77 percent completion (76.8). He's a really good football player, I mean a really good football player."

Sutton tried to explain how he plans on throwing Rodgers off.

"You try to give him movement and looks," he said. "He's seen about everything you can do. He's played enough snaps at quarterback in the National Football League, I don't think you're going to confuse him very long. Like all these guys that are in this category, you just hope that maybe he holds it just a click longer, that's what you're looking for. You have to be tight, you have to play him tight, you have to get a lot of people around the football. They're a great catch-and-run team, they get the ball out fast, catch it and catch some short passes and turn them into big passes – that's one part of their system. You have to deal with all that and yet, he's going to complete passes because of the style of the offense and the talent of the player doing it. The main thing is to cap those off, you don't want him to turn a five-yard pass into a 20-yard pass. That challenges everybody on our defense."

Sutton was asked if safety Eric Berry is officially back.

"Yeah, I think so," he said. "This is the first stretch of a long period where he's been practicing. He's practiced more this year, more than he ever did last year if you took camp and the whole season. I think that's what allows you to get back in it. He obviously was going through another thing that you put on top of that, but I think from a football standpoint, he's going. He feels good, I think when you talk to him he sees things better now and he's more comfortable there. And I think it's just going to keep getting better and better for him from a comfort standpoint. But I don't really see a lot different from him."

Special teams coordinator Dave Toub

Special teams coordinator Dave Toub was asked what he's seen in kicker Cairo Santos and his kickoffs.

"It was one of the things we talked about when the season was over, was him gaining some weight and putting on some more muscle on his lower body, and I think he did a good job of that," he said. "He's definitely hitting the ball a lot better, it looks like he's got 5 to 6 yards more of leg strength. So it's paying off with the touchbacks."

Toub commented on Thomas and the bobbled balls at punt returner this season.

"Last year he was solid," Toub said. "He might've bobbled a couple, but he came off a great year last year. We talk about just securing the football and making sure he makes the catch before he takes off. He got a little excited on that one [during Week 2], he saw it was a clear wide-open deal and he just didn't finish the catch."

Toub admitted that his unit made some mistakes in penalties towards the end of the Broncos game.

"Yeah, some of them were mistakes, some of them were questionable," he said. "Some crews call, some crews don't. But the good thing that I see about it is they're aggressive penalties, guys want to make blocks and they're trying to go above and beyond to make the block. They've just got to be a little bit smarter at the point of attack and show that there are no hands in the back and show that they're on the side. And some were rookies and that happens sometimes. With the rookies, you're always going to have a learning curve that occurs and hopefully you make that correction."

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