*LB Josh Mauga (groin/Achilles) and DT Dontari Poe (high ankle sprain) did not practice. *
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid passed along words regarding the deceased firemen of the Kansas City Fire Department.
"The families of John Mesh and Larry Leggio, our hearts go out to them," he said, "first of all, for the dedication that they have of helping us in the fire department here, but most of all for giving their lives to protect. That's a rough deal, but I know they're going to hang in there and everything's going to work out OK for those families.
Reid commented on promoting running back Spencer Ware to the 53-man roster.
"I think he's a good football player, number one," he said. "Number two, he can serve a dual role for you, plus he's a good special teams player for us in the preseason. We thought knowing what he knows, the quality of player and person, we thought it was the best thing to do."
Reid said the Chiefs would use a "running back by committee" moving forward.
"I've been in this situation before where I kind of did running back by committee," he said. "What you do is you do that—you play to their strengths and give them opportunities to show and help the football team."
Reid said that trust in the locker room is crucial when the team is off to a slow start.
"It tests your character," he said. "You're going to have a lot of people telling you a lot of things. It's important that there's a mutual trust among each other. Most of all, you get back to what's real and that's working hard as coaches and players, this just isn't a one-way thing.
"As coaches and players, working hard, making sure that we understand the game plan and then, most of all, as coaches and players, going out and executing on Sunday. That's what's real and that's what you can control. We all need to do that and do better is what we need to do."
Reid explained how consistency works in in the league on a day-to-day basis.
"When you talk about consistency, it's like changing sands of Cape Cod, right?" he said. "It's one of those deals. It's always changing, it happens every day, it happens in practice, it happens in games. So you have to be able to adjust. The consistency comes within the framework, the meeting schedules and those things. And then once you get out here, you have to be able to adjust and make your changes on the run many times. Every route – it might be a 10-yard route on paper; it might be an 8-yard route on this field. So you have to have that part built in and understand that."
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