HC ANDY REID
Opening Statement: "Just on the injury front, guys who didn't practice today: Allen Bailey didn't practice, he has sore knee, should be fine. He banged knees yesterday. It should be fine. (Keith) Reaser didn't practice. Same injury. Charcandrick (West), same thing, didn't practice. Eric Berry, same thing, didn't practice. (Larry Duvernay-) Tardif didn't practice. Jimmy Murray didn't practice. Nothing new there. (Daniel) Sorensen didn't practice and then Damien Williams didn't practice. All the same things as before. We will just evaluate everyone as we go forward for the game. As far as the quarterbacks go, that is kind of how the rest of the team goes. As far as play time goes, we will go a half with the ones and then the twos will take the third quarter and the threes will take the fourth quarter. Great to have the military out here today. Wish we could have had a better day (with the rain), but they made it good. They made the rain shine today. It was great having them here. They bring a great spirit with them. I love seeing our players with them. Our players loving intermingling with them and taking pictures with them and autographs as best we could without waterproof pens. It was a good day. Time's yours."
Q: How concerned are you with Eric Berry's injury?
REID: "We are being cautious with it. Trying to be smart. Eric has been playing a long time. He is doing a great job of communicating to use how he feels and we will just keep easing him in and see where we are at with that."
Q: Is that how you approach this considering his injury last year?
REID: "We have a better idea now. We didn't have the same deal as last year. It gives us an opportunity here to do it this way."
Q: Do you feel like you accomplished everything here you wanted?
REID: "It is a little bit like being a farmer. The work is never done. We still have a lot of work to do. I appreciated the effort and the things that we did get done. The improvement of the young guys here. Missouri Western State University, I appreciate them and the way they treat us. They give us an opportunity to get out here and be able to focus in on playing. They feed us and they house us. They keep these fields beautiful. My hat goes off to them. But to answer your question, I feel like we got a lot accomplished, but we have plenty of work to do though."
Q: Why did you stay outside today?
REID: "This is a great day. As long as there is not lightning out, it gives the quarterbacks and receivers an opportunity with the wet ball. It gives the long snapper, the holder and the kicker an opportunity, or punter in this case today, an opportunity to work with it. Defensive backs focusing in on the ball and catching a wet ball without having to dunk it in a bucket of water or anything. It is all natural here."
Q: Do you know who is going sit out in Atlanta? Specifically, Anthony Hitchens and Reggie Ragland?
REID: "We'll see how it goes here. We got a few days here. Let's just see how they do and we'll get it to you whenever we have it."
Q: It's military day, do you have an official anthem policy for your players?
REID: "This is a good thing, this is great, the league and the players association are talking now, which is great. Everything is on hold, I'm glad they're talking about it and whatever they come up with, both parties, I think it's just a win-win."
Q: Albert Wilson knelt in his first game in Miami. You know he had an inclination to do that and did you keep him from doing that?
REID: "No, I didn't know that, no."
Q: Coach, Andrew Wylie, what have you seen from him at camp?
REID: "Andrew (Wylie), he's been one of those pleasant surprises coming in. He's really done a nice job for us. We put him at guard and tackle, he was working in at the right tackle position, and so right now, while Larry (Laurent Duvernay-Tardif) was out. I think that was good for him, but I'm curious to see him in a game situation in there and see what he can do. But he's done very well at practice."
Q: Was Dustin Colquitt kicking an extra point yesterday, was that preparation for a worst-case scenario?
REID: "Yeah, so it was (Harrison) Butker's day off, so that's our emergency group. You had (Travis) Kelce snapping, (Chris) Conley holding, and Dustin (Colquitt) kicking. You need to get that work in somewhere, on the kicker's day off that's a good day to do it."
Q: If it was up to you, would you want to return to Missouri Western State University next season?
REID: "Yeah, I'd go off the statement I made. I love what they give us here and the effort that they put forward is tremendous. I don't do all the other stuff. I coach and they do the deal, but they sure treat us good. Great people here."
Q: What sort of things do you want to see from Patrick Mahomes against Atlanta?
REID: "Just to work the offense in its simplest form. Continue to work your reads, your progressions, run game situations and so on. Just another opportunity to get some reps in and work."
Q: Can you get the work done along the offensive line without Laurent Duvernay-Tardif on Friday?
REID: "Yeah, we don't worry about all that. Whoever is there, I expect them to do their thing. I'm a little hard on the two lines, both sides of the ball. I know how important it is that both of those sides play well. Nobody else can do their job without both of those sides playing, so we're always striving to do a little better."
QB PATRICK MAHOMES
Q: Was it fun playing in the rain?
MAHOMES: "Yeah, it's really fun. It's the last day in St. Joseph and everybody's excited to get out there and have a great day. Then you get the rain and you get a lot of great work in with the rain and hopefully preparing yourself for whenever in the season if you get a rain game."
Q: When's the last time you practiced in a rain that was coming down this hard?
MAHOMES: "I don't think I ever have – well I take that back. At Texas Tech we didn't have an indoor facility, so if it rained there we still practiced outside. They have the indoor now, of course. When I was there, there was no indoor so I think sophomore year we had a pretty good rain. It was pretty tough today."
Q: What kind of things can you get out of a practice in the rain?
MAHOMES: "You try to make the more difficult throws today, especially in the kind of practice we had today because you want to see what you can do in these rain games – that's what Coach (Andy) Reid said to me right when we came out here today. Just make the difficult throw all day and I try to do that. It rains in the NFL, so you've got to be prepared for every situation."
Q: Was it great to see the military and the NFL players come together in solidarity?
MAHOMES: "As NFL players, we've always supported the military. That's something that's never changed and that's something where we've always supported those people and everything they sacrifice for us. To have them out here is always great. To show the support that they show to us as well is something that you really appreciate in everything they do."
Q: What do you want to see out of yourself in this second preseason game?
MAHOMES: "You get to go out there and have a little bit more time, hopefully get into a rhythm and get some scoring drives. That's something we didn't have last week with the first-team offense, so you want to go out there and score. At the same time, as I've said all camp, you want to be efficient, you get in and out of the huddle, you make the right checks at the line, you get the right protection calls and hopefully just have a positive game."
Q: Do you feel that you were able to get into some of the things you wanted to do given the pass protection in that first preseason game?
MAHOMES: "I didn't think the pass protection was as bad as some people have said it was. I was getting the ball out and was throwing the ball. I only took one sack and I stepped up into (Mitchell) Schwartz's guy that he was blocking. Any time you can go out there and you can get the ball out of your hands, hopefully we can make some plays. For us now, it's just about making some bigger plays and keeping drives going. I feel like we would start to go and fizzle out so now we're trying to sustain these drives and score some points."
Q: How do you feel that the team came together over the course of training camp?
MAHOMES: "I felt that the team really came together as a team and as players. We really wanted to make sure that we built that chemistry on and off the field because when you see those really special teams, they've got a tight bond and they're tight chemistry guys."
Q:How much is Travis Kelce in your ear, sideline, huddle, and film room?
MAHOMES: "Yeah, he's a great leader for the whole entire offense. He's one of the most veteran guys on our offense. He's a guy who wants to win. He comes out here every single day and he works hard. He pushes himself as well as others to be great and that's something that I truly aspire to see with him and I want to get to the level where I'm as inspiring as he is."
Q:What does he do that makes you smile or laugh or get a little more focused?
MAHOMES: "He talks about a lot of stuff. I mean, you know Kelce. He's a funny guy. The positive energy that he always has, I think is the biggest thing. He's always positive. He's always trying to get the guys going even when we're into training camp and guys legs get tired. He's going to bring it so everyone else has to match his intensity and that's the biggest thing"
Q:Do you have anything that helps you take your mind off football?
MAHOMES:"There's not a lot of down time. I mean, we're going right into the preseason games and then we have two more preseason games that I'll probably play in. The last one I'll be able to start preparing for the Chargers and doing those things. Right now, I'm going to really focus on this next opponent but I mean there's not a lot of down time - it's all football now."
Q:Since Alex Smith getting traded, how has the whole transition gone for you? Do you feel like the leader of the Chiefs now?
MAHOMES: "I mean, I definitely have a bigger voice just being in the starting quarterback role but there are so many leaders on this team. There are so many leaders and so many guys that have stepped up and as well as I've tried to step up and be more vocal. When you have a team of leaders and guys are following and guys are doing the right thing, those are the teams that have a lot of success."
Q:Sammy Watkins is a big target but he wasn't targeted in the preseason game. Do you feel like you'll be able to find him not only on the practice field but during the games?
MAHOMES: "Yeah, when you have a guy with that much talent and that caliber of talent you're going to find him. We're in the preseason. He only got like eight snaps so he didn't get a target in that game. I'm positive he'll get a few whenever the season comes on."
