Kansas City Chiefs back to practice on Thursday, preparations continue for Super Bowl

By Calvin Silvers

The Kansas City Chiefs were back on the practice field on Thursday, as preparations for Super Bowl LVIII continue. Being back on the practice field meant the team was also back at the podium answering questions from the media.

“You dream of this as a kid, you want to play in this game, this is the pinnacle of the football world,” linebacker Drue Tranquill said. “To look back on that text from coach (Andy) Reid, it’s something to laugh about, but it’s crazy. It’s been a long eight months or I guess ten months since that moment.

Tranquill was referencing a text where Reid told him to start thinking about Super Bowls when he joined the team this season. Tranquill did only sign a one year, $3 million dollar contract to leave Los Angeles and play in the Midwest.

Signing his name across the dotted line would prove to be beneficial for not only him and the team. Now with the Super Bowl on the horizon, Tranquill and the team are back to practice.

“We’re pretty locked both weeks,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “You want to make sure you get the whole game plan in. You get all your questions asked and answered, so next week when you’re reviewing, you can just go into the fine details.”

The opponent the Chiefs are preparing for in Super Bowl LVIII will be the San Francisco 49ers, who bring a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, but the main position on the field is the quarterback, and despite only being a second-year guy and the last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy is having himself a season.

“He’s a heck of a player. I remember specifically one of the Saturday afternoons watching him in college, and I remember the head coach saying, this guy has changed our program,” head coach Andy Reid said. “That’s what he is. I mean, he’s doing that in the National Football League.

Purdy’s 72.7 QBR is the best in the league, but there’s another dynamic athlete in the backfield. The 49ers traded for running back Christian McCaffrey last season, two years after McCaffrey signed a four-year, $64 million deal with the Carolina Panthers.

This season, he has the most rushing yards and is ranked fourth in touchdowns.

“Dynamic of a back as there is in the National Football League you know, people would say he’s not the biggest, but he runs with incredible power,” Tranquill said. “He’s running guys over, his stiff arm is vicious, he’s a weapon in the passing game, he’s elusive in space… and so he’s going to be a big challenge for us to stop.”

Both of these teams have been in the moment recently, as the two faced off in Super Bowl LIV, and of course Kansas City defeated Philadelphia in last year’s Super Bowl.

Despite all the excitement, it’s just another week.

“Like as a player, it hasn’t felt any different for me from the regular season,” Tranquill said. “I think our coaching staff has done such a good job of keeping our routines, our practice habits, our meetings the exact same and so preparation just kind of stays in your flow.”