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Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid arrived Sunday on the campus of Missouri Western State University to start his 20th season as an NFL head coach Jack Mewhort Jersey , yet finds himself energized by what's new on his football team for 2018.
"There's more new I would say on both sides of the ball," Reid said. "Some of the old guys that have been here aren't here."
The team lost several veterans during the offseason, trading quarterback Alex Smith to Washington and parting ways with longtime linebackers Derrick Johnson and Tamba Hali among other moves.
The offseason changes result in a team navigating through its most significant turnover since Reid's 2013 arrival in Kansas City.
"Whether it's the quarterback position, inside linebacker position, outside linebacker position, you're missing a few of those guys and you have new guys coming in that you have an opportunity to see perform," Reid said. "That's exciting to me, I'm looking forward to that."
The biggest change comes at quarterback with Smith giving way to Patrick Mahomes, the No. 10 overall selection in last year's draft. Smith won 50 regular-season games as the team's starter since 2013.
"Alex was phenomenal, he's going to continue to be phenomenal for the Redskins and we feel very lucky to have Pat, to be able to step up and watch him grow here," Reid said. "Let's see how he does. He can't be in any better place, man, than with the Kansas City Chiefs and I know he's fired up about that."
Mahomes arrived in camp Sunday along with the team's other quarterbacks and with coaches, rookies and select veterans. A three-day minicamp starts on Monday before the full squad checks in on July 25. The first full team practice kicks off July 26.
The 22-year-old faces no competition for the starting quarterback job. The team acquired veteran Chad Henne as his understudy and to serve as a sounding board for Mahomes as he navigates his first full season as a starter. Mahomes hopes to use his time in camp to become a more efficient quarterback.
"I want to make sure I can get in and out of the huddle fast, we can make the right checks and just really have a lot of positive plays Gale Sayers Jersey ," Mahomes said.
"Not necessarily the huge plays but just have positive plays and move the chains. That's how you have success in the NFL. You keep taking those yards, taking those yards and then when you have guys that can stretch the field you make those plays and those come within the flow of the game."
With new faces arriving in camp this week, Reid had good news about some of the team's key players returning from injury.
The coach said he expects only wide receiver De'Anthony Thomas and cornerback Ashton Lampkin possibly starting camp on the sidelines. That means center Mitch Morse, linebacker Dee Ford and running back Spencer Ware, all returning from season-ending injuries a year ago, expect to practice with the team.
"All those guys, everybody else is good," Reid said. "Again I just want to see on the field and we'll kind of monitor as it goes but, yeah, they all should be ready to go."
The quarterback change and other roster turnover create an array of differing expectations for this Chiefs' team. Many preseason prognosticators have the Los Angeles Chargers replacing Kansas City atop the AFC West after back-to-back divisional titles.
Reid, however, doesn't see it that way.
"But the important thing is there is high expectations within the building, within the team," Reid said. "They demand that from themselves. You felt that in the OTAs and I expect that to continue. I expect guys to challenge each other, that's the way you get better. We've got great competition that we're going to play this year starting with the Chargers."
Yet with many viewing the 2018 season as a transition, if not rebuilding Jeremy Vujnovich Jersey , year for the Chiefs, even Reid acknowledges that this season paves the way for a brighter future under Mahomes.
"We're striving to win a championship and then to consistently be in a position where we can win a championship as the years go on," Reid said. "And it starts again today."
Daniel Carlson's career-best field goal at Auburn was 56 yards. His confidence range indoors reaches 65. During pre-draft training in the high altitude of his home state Colorado, he said, even a 75-yard kick was makeable.
The Minnesota Vikings were so enamored with that strong leg they used a fifth-round pick on the 6-foot-5, 213-pound Carlson, a bold enough move to suggest he'll be the place kicker this season and not incumbent Kai Forbath.
No matter how big of a boom Carlson delivers on the ball, though, what matters the most is how accurate he can be from those less-impressive and more-critical distances. The shorter kicks that the Vikings have seen missed too many times over the past five years.
"I'm a 6-foot-5 kicker, which is pretty rare. That does help having those long levers to hopefully get a couple touchbacks and some longer kicks here and there," Carlson said. "But at the end of the day it's the kicks inside of 50 that really are going to make or break a season or make or break you."
The Vikings re-signed Forbath in March. In 25 games since he replaced the struggling Blair Walsh, Forbath has missed eight extra points. He also pulled a couple of 39-yard field goals wide in 2017. Though he came through down the stretch with several important makes, including three field goals in the playoff game win over New Orleans, Forbath clearly didn't gain the full trust of the coaching staff and front office.
"The whole objective right now at this point is to create the most competitive 90-man roster that you can, regardless of position," general manager Rick Spielman said last weekend after making Carlson the 167th overall selection.
When the Vikings drafted Walsh in the sixth round in 2012 D.J. Hayden Jersey , they released reliable incumbent Ryan Longwell the day after the rookie minicamp was complete. The same scenario played out in 2013 with punter Jeff Locke, a fifth-round pick, and his outspoken predecessor, Chris Kluwe. For now, the Vikings have said they'll keep the competition open. Still, a fifth-rounder is a high price for a specialist.
"Kai's done really good this spring," coach Mike Zimmer said. "So we're just going to let them go out there and kick."
Carlson made all 198 extra points he attempted in college, albeit from 20 yards and not 33 yards, to set an SEC record. He went 92 for 114 on field goals. Factor in a strong performance at the Senior Bowl in January, and the Vikings were interested. They sent special teams coordinator Mike Priefer to Auburn for one of five private workouts Carlson conducted after the scouting combine, and Carlson and Priefer immediately hit it off.
Carlson was one of the eight draftees among 66 players assembled by the Vikings for workouts this weekend, including 31 players invited on a tryout basis.
The 17 college free agents signed earlier this week included cornerback Holton Hill from Texas and linebacker Hercules Mata'afa of Washington State, considered two of the top undrafted players. Among the unsigned prospects aiming to follow the lead of Marcus Sherels in 2010 and Adam Thielen in 2013, as tryout players who earned a contract after the rookie minicamp and eventually made the team, are safety Mackenro Alexander of Iowa State, the twin brother of Vikings cornerback Mackensie Alexander; Northern Illinois wide receiver Chad Beebe Ethan Westbrooks Jersey , the son of former Buffalo Bills standout Don Beebe; and quarterback Matt Linehan from Idaho, the son of former Vikings and current Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Scott Linehan.
None of these players, even first-round cornerback Mike Hughes, carry the potential to impact the Vikings in 2018 as much as Carlson.
"I knew what I was coming into, and I'm excited to get to work," said Carlson, a three-time Lou Groza Award finalist and the SEC special teams player of the year for the last two seasons. "Hopefully, I'll prove to these coaches and the rest of this team that I deserve to be here."
Make those high-pressure kicks, and they'll quickly develop that respect.
"You kind of figure it out with a little maturity and handling those big moments," Carlson said, "but I think as a kicker that's what we're supposed to live for."
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