4 takeaways from Day 8 of Chiefs training camp

The Kansas City Chiefs held their last training camp practice of the week on Thursday at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri. They’ll pick things up again on Saturday as they begin game-prep for Week 1 of the preseason against the Chicago Bears.

This practice was one of Andy Reid’s traditional 10-10-10 practices, which are typically shorter, quicker and lighter work. The team rotated through sets of 11-on-11 team drills, with 10 plays on offense, 10 plays on defense, and 10 plays on special teams. Overall, it seemed to be a good end to the practice week with some explosive plays and good competition on both sides of the ball.

Here are a few of the things we learned during the course of the team’s eighth practice:

Cornell Powell enters the show

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Chiefs second-year WR Cornell Powell had a quiet training camp before Thursday’s practice session. With Daurice Fountain sidelined with a groin injury, Powell snuck into the starting rotation with the first-team offense. This was the first time during training camp that Powell had been spotted working with the first team.

These were important repetitions for Powell to have an opportunity to showcase what he has learned after spending the season on the practice squad in 2021. Powell even caught a touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes against the second-team defense per KFEQ radio’s Tommy Rezac. The competition is fierce in the receiver room in Kansas City, and this serves as a reminder that even a minor injury could take a player out of the equation and thrust another into the spotlight.

Skyy Moore is the next Deebo Samuel

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

JuJu Smith-Schuster has put ideas into Andy Reid’s head.

Early on in training camp, Smith-Schuster said he could see rookie WR Skyy Moore playing some running back. He felt that Moore had the ability to be that type of versatile offensive weapon. Well, apparently Reid feels the same way. Over the past two days of practice, they’ve been practicing giving Moore some snaps in the backfield.

On Wednesday, they practiced him taking some carries in individual work (see the featured image above). On Thursday, he got to execute a play out of the backfield in practice.

Check it out:

A little Deebo Samuel-like action for Moore, who seemed to run right by the secondary for what would have been a long gain. It’s worth noting that effort isn’t always the highest between offense and defense in 10-10-10 practices.  That said, with Moore getting opportunities to return kicks and punts, plus work in various roles on offense, it’s safe to expect a lot of snaps for the rookie in 2022.

Jaylen Watson continues reps with first-team defense

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For the third time this week, Jaylen Watson took a lot of snaps with the first-team defense in place of Joshua Williams. Williams had got the early nod as one of the starters at outside cornerback, but it has been Watson taking the majority of the reps in each of the last three sessions.

“I thought he’s had two really good practices,” Spagnuolo said of Watson. “The first couple of snaps (yesterday), I thought he did a really nice job in coverage. He has come along. He was kind of a slow-mover early. I think he’s kind of figuring out that doesn’t really work at this level. You’ve got to practice everything fast.”

Outside of L’Jarius Sneed, it has been Trent McDuffie, Williams and Watson getting all the snaps at cornerback with the first-team defense. While Spagnuolo stressed that nothing is set in stone right now, it seems that Kansas City is going to rely heavily on their rookies at the cornerback position one way or another.

Isiah Pacheco showing shades of Kareem Hunt

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The hype for seventh-round rookie RB Isiah Pacheco doesn’t look like it’s going to die down anytime soon. On Thursday, Pacheco continued to get the first look as the team’s starting kick returner. He also worked in with both the first- and second-team offense.

Pacheco had one play that elicited some comparisons to former Chiefs RB Kareem Hunt. On a halfback seam route, isolated against a linebacker, he caught an over-the-shoulder grab in tight coverage.

Check it out:

This was a route that was highly successful with players like Hunt and even Damien Williams, but they weren’t really able to get it going with Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Darrel Williams the past two years. If Pacheco is someone who can execute this route out of the backfield and variations of this play at a high level, he’ll be seeing the field often in 2022.

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Story originally appeared on Chiefs Wire