The Kansas City Chiefs have nearly completed their final group of Organized Team Activities (OTAs) on Thursday. The Chiefs have completed 9-of-10 voluntary OTA practice sessions ahead of the team’s mandatory minicamp and they’ll wrap things up tomorrow.
Attendance remains high, according to The Athletic’s Nate Taylor, who counted at least 80 players in attendance for Thursday’s practice. It’s important to note this as these practices remain voluntary, which means that players will come and go throughout the course of OTAs for various reasons.
There were a number of players absent from practice on Thursday. According to Taylor, the following players were missing from practice: Frank Clark, Mecole Hardman, Demarcus Robinson, Armani Watts, Kyle Long, Charvarius Ward, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Martinas Rankin & Demone Harris.
Chiefs just finished their last open OTA session, with Juan Thornhill & Rodney Clemons participating this week.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire & Darrel Williams were back this week, too.
I counted 80 players. No Frank Clark, Mecole Hardman, Demarcus Robinson, Armani Watts & Kyle Long.
— Nate Taylor (@ByNateTaylor) June 10, 2021
Malik Herring, Chris Jones and DeAndre Baker did not participate in practice but were present on Thursday per Taylor. Returning to practice were safeties Juan Thornhill and Rodney Clemons, who had previously been sidelined.
To this point, the Chiefs had really escaped OTAs injury-free, but on Thursday morning news came down that Kyle Long had suffered a kneecap injury. Chiefs HC Andy Reid provided an update on that and mentioned that surgery is a possibility for Long.
“Kyle hurt his knee here. It doesn’t look like its ligaments, but we’ll see. . . they’re going to look at it and determine it,” Reid told reporters. “There’s a chance that he’ll have to have surgery on it, but we’ll see.”
Long’s status will be something to monitor the next few months as we learn more about his injury, recovery and timeline for return.
In addition to the injury to Long, Coach Reid was spotted using a cane at practice. He assured reporters that it’s nothing to be alarmed about.
May need an injury report from Andy Reid on Andy Reid. Hoping Big Red is okay! #Chiefs pic.twitter.com/8ynEeuJa4O
— Harold R. Kuntz (@HaroldRKuntz3) June 10, 2021
“Yeah, I’m good,” Reid said. “I hit 60 and things started aching a bit, but I’m good.”
The Chiefs will break for a quick weekend siesta following Friday’s practice and they’ll turn around and get started on mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, June 15th to close out this portion of the offseason program.
