3 Chiefs Defenders to Watch in Week 2

Below is head coach Andy Reid's press conference availability from the eighth of Sept, before the first Week 2 game against the Philadelphia Eagles in a Super Bowl rematch.

OPENING STATEMENT: “So as far as the injuries go, I know Xavier’s (Worthy) the big question, and he’s rehabbing and working his shoulder and we’ll just see where it goes – day by day here (and) see where we end up. As far as the game goes, we’ve got to obviously coach better and play better. I take full responsibility for that, and we’ll get that worked out.

There were some good things mixed in there, but there’s some things we’ve got to fix, and I know the players are aware of that, and the coaches are aware of it. So we’ll get busy on that. We’ve got a good (Philadelphia) Eagles team coming in here and (we) look forward to playing right here at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium against a good football team. So, with that, time’s yours.”

Q: How close is Jalen Royals to returning? Considering you may not have Xavier Worthy this week, what is his confidence level?

REID: “Yeah, Jalen’s (Royals) done a good job with his rehab. Well, again we’ll just see how that ends up this week. We’ve got a couple (of) days here that we’ve had, so guys are making good progress in that, but we’ll see, (we’ll) see where it rolls. If neither (Jalen Royals and Xavier Worthy) play, we’ve got the guys that we played with the other night that are good football players.”

Q: Where is your “preparedness-level” at in regard to giving Kristian Fulton a bigger workload?

REID: “Yeah, he’s (Kristian Fulton) been working in and working out, which is a good thing, and we’ll just use him as we go here. How much bigger of a load he gets? I can’t tell you that, but he has been working and he gets better every day, so (he’s) more comfortable every day. It’s not only getting back physically, but also with the defensive part of it.”

Q: How would you assess the pass defense overall?

REID: “Listen, there are things that we’ve got to work on. Spags (Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) has got a great grasp of it and the players, they know. So, we’ve got to fix a few things there. Yeah.”

Q: What mentality do you want to see from the team in the home opener against the Philadelphia Eagles?

REID: “Yeah, I think the guys – they’ll be fired up to play against a real good football team (Philadelphia
Eagles), and at home. I wouldn’t expect anything less than that.”

Q: What stood out for you from other teams in Week 1?

REID: “You know I didn’t look at much. The one advantage that both the (Philadelphia) Eagles and we had was we had a couple (of) extra days to dig in on each other, so that’s where I spent all my time after going through our stuff.”