Kansas City Chiefs vs.

Friday, August 27, 2021 Preseason Game 3 Vikings

OPENING STATEMENT: “I thought tonight was sloppy. I thought we gave up a big play early in the game. We gave another big play in a screen. Offensively, we had way too many penalties. We started out with a pretty good drive down the field in the first drive and stalled in the red zone there. The next drive we take a sack and so that kind of puts an end to that drive and then the third drive we were backed up and didn’t do much there. We still have a lot of work to do. We will be excited to get our players who have been holding on this preseason out there and get going again.”

Q: With Dalvin (Tomlinson) and Justin (Jefferson) out, how do you evaluate the offense?

ZIMMER: “It is really hard. On all sides of the ball, I feel like we are going to be pretty good, but you still have to go out there and prove it. We held out (Eric) Kendricks, (Anthony) Barr, (Danielle) Hunter, (Harrison) Smith and . Offensively, it was basically those three guys. I think part of the deal tonight when I was listening to the defense was that these young safeties played basically most of the game, so they were having a hard time making adjustments, communicating and checking, but it was a good go around with a loud crowd. I think it was a good experience for a lot of these young guys.”

Q: How do you feel about closing the game?

ZIMMER: “I think he improved in all three ball games. There was some good and some bad.”

Q: Have you had a chance to look at the battle for the backup job?

ZIMMER: “We will look at it tomorrow and evaluate that.”

Q: On the 35-yard score, was safety miscommunication an issue?

ZIMMER: “No, that was him. He did not cover the guy.”

Q: Did you consider putting back out there for a fourth drive?

ZIMMER: “I was fine (with three). We planned on him not playing very long anyway. I wanted to make sure to get out of there healthy. He took a pretty good shot on that second drive. I think if you look at a lot of the guys that played that are probably not really ready to play yet. I have been very cautious about playing some of our guys because of injuries. If we get the wrong guys hurt, we are going to struggle in a lot of ways.”

Q: You talked the protection after the Colts game. Was that a similar deal with the sack on (Kirk) Cousins?

ZIMMER: “Yeah, I don’t know what that was exactly on that one. I know that they blitzed, but I don’t know if we didn’t squeeze. I didn’t hear that.”

Q: Did you take away much from Everson (Griffen)’s play?

ZIMMER: “I know he hit the quarterback a couple of times. I know he had that one sack and hit the quarterback one time. I thought he had another good . We just want to see him on third down and see if he can still rush.”

Q: How do you size up the (Stephen) Weatherly and (D.J.) Wonnum battle at defensive end? ZIMMER: “Same thing, we’ll evaluate it tomorrow.”

Q: How did you feel about (D.J.) Wonnum tonight?

ZIMMER: “A couple of times I saw him rush well. Part of that is that I need to know who he’s rushing on and during the game sometimes, I don’t know what guys are rushing on what guys. That’s part of it too.”

Q: With roster cuts looming, how many roster spots do you think are up for grabs? How much work from tonight will go towards making those decisions?

ZIMMER: “It’s tough to say how many because I think you’re looking at guys from other teams too. You’re trying to figure out if this guy is better than a guy we have on our team, that gets released. You try to figure out the and all of those things, making sure you have enough guys in case guys get hurt. We basically ran out of running backs tonight. We ran out of receivers tonight. The other part is, I think we’re going to have to do some conditioning. I know it’s hot out there tonight, but those guys were sucking. We’re probably going to have to condition the rest of this week and some of next week.”

Q: You mentioned about getting guys in shape. Was that a big issue?

ZIMMER: “Well, these guys played a lot of plays tonight, especially the offensive guys. On special teams, we had a couple of injuries, so guys had to go there. We had a couple of , so we had a few there. It was hot and they’re playing every play on special teams. I know there was a couple of guys that couldn’t rise to the occasion there towards the end.”

Q: said on today that he had surgery. Was that his knee or something else?

ZIMMER: “You’ll have to ask him.”

Kansas City Chiefs vs. Minnesota Vikings

Friday, August 27, 2021 Preseason Game 3 Vikings Quarterback Kirk Cousins

OPENING STATEMENT: “Just another short body of work at the start of the game. That was a positive first drive, moving the ball down the field, had some good connections with Irv (Smith Jr.) for some explosive plays but we just couldn’t close in the red zone. We talk a lot about third downs and the red zone so we always want to convert those when we can. We weren’t able to get anything going the other two drives. Now we look forward to Cincinnati and get ready for the real thing. Looking forward to that challenge coming here in a couple of weeks.”

Q: It was a small sample size but does it disappoint you that in six possessions in the preseason the first team wasn’t able to get a ?

COUSINS: “Yeah, we’ll have a few more guys with us in Cincinnati and I think that always helps. There’s always going to be things to work on. We look forward to getting back to work.”

Q: What can you take away from the drive that was 10 plays for 67 yards? You guys were able to move it a little bit there tonight?

COUSINS: “Yeah, I think Irv (Smith Jr.) did a great job separating versus man coverage. We did a good job running the football that drive as well, I thought. It’s kind of all running together right now but, we took it down there and moved the football and it was real positive.”

Q: How debilitating was it to start that second drive with a sack?

COUSINS: “Yeah, then you’re 2nd and 20 or 20-plus, whatever it was, we didn’t get anything on the run on second down and then you’re in third and really long again, just like we were last week. We’ve got to stay out of those situations, have to avoid negative plays. When you’re in manageable third downs, it’s a little more doable to convert and stay on the field.”

Q: Were you hoping to come back out on the fourth drive or were you ok with coming out after three?

COUSINS: “In preseason, you just learn to roll with whatever Coach (Mike Zimmer) decides. Whether it’s one drive, the whole first half, whatever it may be, you just learn to be flexible, not really plan ahead and just be able to react.”

Q: Obviously your body work is a lot bigger in practices. How are you feeling overall about the starting offense and where you guys are at?

COUSINS: “I feel good. We’ve got great rapport with our coaches, with the plan, we really like the plan. We feel good about our unit. I’m excited about our guys and now that we’re getting close to the real thing, we really have to be ready to go, get our guys healthy and start fast.”

Q: How did you feel about Kellen Mond? He really seemed to get into a rhythm there in the second half and looked good at the end.

COUSINS: “Yeah, we had some good possessions in the second half. It was great to put some points up on the board and really make that game close at the end.”

Kansas City Chiefs vs. Minnesota Vikings

Friday, August 27, 2021 Preseason Game 3 Chiefs Head Coach

OPENING STATEMENT: “There really are no injuries to give you tonight. The guys that were supposed to play, played. (Clyde Edwards) Helaire, (Darrel) Williams, (Austin) Blythe, (Frank) Clark, Larry Duvernay-Tardif and (Rashad) Fenton did not play. Everybody else played and I thought did a nice job. I thought both sides of the ball and special teams did well. It was good to get the young guys in—they had some extended play there and I thought that was good for them. It gives Brett (Veach) an opportunity to go back and evaluate one more time some of those guys that he’s got tough decisions on. But I sure appreciated their effort. With that, time’s yours.”

Q: Why didn’t play tonight?

REID: “Chad’s had enough reps. I wanted to get the young kid () some good, extended play time where he wasn’t rotating with (Anthony) Gordon, and it allowed us to do that.”

Q: What are these next 48-72 hours going to look like for you guys?

REID: “We’ll take a couple days off here for the players. It will give Brett (Veach) time to organize and get ready. We’ll come back in a couple days and have a short practice, a lift and a workout. Then, we’ll have three practices and they get three days off at the end of it—everybody in the league does—so that’s kind of the format of it.”

Q: With the new bye week this year, how are you going to get everyone to ramp back up for Week 1?

REID: “We’ll be all right. The guys will have good energy. They finished here with that and they know they’ve got a good football team coming in here in Cleveland, so you don’t have to say a whole lot. They know what’s ahead of them.”

Q: only had four catches in the preseason—what was the disconnect early in his career?

REID: “I don’t know that. I know he’s done a nice job, so it’s good to get him in and get him some work.”

Q: You’ve talked about how deep your group is, and you had a chance to put all four of them out there at the same time. Have you ever been able to do that before?

REID: “No, I told them that I’m not so sure since we’ve been here that we’ve had four guys like that. They’re all good football players, so we threw them out there and gave them a shot. They were all excited and looked all right.”

Q: What do you attribute the success to on the first two offensive drives? Do you see getting more comfortable behind his new offensive line?

REID: “Yeah, I just think the more he plays with them, the better. I thought it was an important week this week for him to have a chance to get some reps in against who I think is one of the best defensive coordinators in the . I mean, Zim (Mike Zimmer) has been doing it a long time and he’s got experienced guys over there as coaches, so they’re going to be disciplined with what they do. So, I thought it was good to get in and have him get some reps there.”

Q: What has done to maybe solidify his spot at the right position?

REID: “Yeah, well, we’ve got a handful of guys, plus some—maybe two handfuls—that we feel are pretty good players, but he’s gotten better every week. I give him credit for that. I’ll go back and look at this, as will, and just see how he did. He’s had a good camp and he’s had good downs when he’s played.”

Q: Why did Patrick Mahomes only play two series?

REID: “Well, I knew going in that we had what I thought were enough reps, strictly with the comfort I felt the offense had working together and the defense had working together. So, then I could pull the trigger when I needed to pull it so I could get him out of there. But I thought what we did—we had long drives, some good work and we already had enough snaps.”

Q: What tells you that—the number of snaps, or what you’ve seen?

REID: “I think the number compared to what we’ve done in the past. Like you, I’ve been doing this a couple years, so I kind of have a feel on where we’re at and what we need. Time will tell, obviously.”

Q: Can you talk about Shane Buechele’s preseason?

REID: “Mike (Kafka) and EB () have done a good job with him, just getting him ready, and he does a nice job. He’s a gamer and I’ve been impressed with him. He doesn’t get down on himself. If he has a bad play, he comes back with a good play, and he’ll keep learning. That’s why I thought the time we could give him in this game was important.”

Q: Did you let Eric Bieniemy call plays tonight as preparation for him trying to get a head coaching job?

REID: “I’ve mentioned this before, he’s called all along, I just now get rid of the thing so you can see that he’s calling. I’ve got to feed it, so I’m feeding it to you because nobody believes me. But he did a heck of a job with it.”

Q: Mayor Lucas declared that this was Terez Paylor Day and the Chiefs retired his seat upstairs—when you think back to all the reporters you’ve met, what is Terez’s legacy to you?

REID: “Well, we’re both in the fork-tarian club—in other words, we like to eat—so we talked about that, and I just liked the guy. I liked his disposition, like you guys did. You can’t help but like him. So, it’s a sad deal that happened, but I know he’s in a good place and he’s probably writing about all of you guys up there right now. He was a heck of a person.”

Q: Where have and the offensive line progressed?

REID: “Marcus is a good special teams player and a good receiver. He had a real good camp, like he did before he got hurt last year, so he’s done well. The progress on the offensive line, I liked what I saw tonight. I’m curious to see the tape and see where we’re at. I like what I’ve seen.”

Kansas City Chiefs vs. Minnesota Vikings

Friday, August 27, 2021 Preseason Game 3 Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes

Q: Are you feeling more comfortable behind this offensive line?

MAHOMES: “Yeah for sure. I mean it’s gotten better each and every week. I think they’ve had an amazing preseason. I haven’t got hit a lot; I don’t really think I got touched today. I think that just speaks to them and how they’ve been playing. They’ve done a great job and gotten better each and every week so I’m excited for the season.”

Q: What progress have you seen from the offensive line from the first game in San Francisco to tonight?

MAHOMES: “Yeah I think it just comes with the communication, everybody being on the same page. I mean obviously they’re all really talented. You can see that in their practice, you can see that when they’re doing one on ones, whatever it is. As you kind of gel as an offensive line, with the quarterback, with the whole entire offense, when everybody is on the same exact page is when you have those truly great offensive lines and great offenses. I think you see us as games are going on, we’re communicating better and better and I think we’ll continue to improve throughout the season.”

Q: How much did the team game plan for the Vikings?

MAHOMES: “I think it was more, not necessarily game planning, we didn’t really change the script I guess you’d say, but we went through kind of that pregame mock game week. I think that’s the biggest thing. You get all the cut-ups, you got a couple preseason games they already played and you kind of went through that routine that I’ve kind of built. I think just having that as well as going against the defense and them playing a little bit of a scout team defense, it showed that we came out a little bit faster, a little bit crisper and were able to move the ball well.”

Q: How flexible can this offense be if you keep all four tight ends?

MAHOMES: “Yeah I think I talked about it at the luncheon, we can be very flexible. We can put all receivers on the field, we can put all tight ends on the field, kind of whatever it is. Being able to do that in this league, you want to be flexible, you want to be able to through change ups at the defenses. When we got all the tight ends out there, it turned into a touchdown. Don’t tell the receivers, but it was a touchdown.”

Q: Have you been watching the Top 100 list and what are your thoughts?

MAHOMES: “I haven’t watched it a lot, but you always stay tuned to see stuff. I think we’ve got a couple guys on there. I still think Tyrann (Mathieu) and Chris Jones deserve more respect than they get. I mean you literally can’t block Chris and Tyrann is such a smart, great player. It’s an honor to be on that list in general especially when it’s voted on by players. It’s definitely a cool feeling, but hopefully we can keep getting those guys up as their careers go on.”

Q: What kind of advantage do you feel it gives you guys when you can put three or four tight ends out there?

MAHOMES: “Yeah well I think that having those tight ends on the field that can run, block and catch and then the offensive line that we’ve built here and how they’ve really been able to run the ball, I think it’s going to put some defenses in some very tough positions. They either have to put a lot of big people on the field to stop the run or they have to find a way to stop those guys like Noah (Gray), Blake (Bell), Travis (Kelce) and Jody (Fortson) who can all catch the ball like a receiver.”

Q: What happened on that particular touchdown to ?

MAHOMES: “It was kind of a roll out play that we usually run. We actually had a couple in, not trying to give away too many secrets, but got a couple plays in. We were able to run that play, and they actually played pretty good defense, put us in zone coverage and that read was kind of Blake blocking down and sealing the edge and kind of leaking back out. I threw the ball a little low and he showed off the hands and made a good play on it. You would have thought he was a former quarterback for sure.”

Q: Why was it so important and valuable for you to play in the preseason?

MAHOMES: “Yeah I think it was important to me. Obviously coming off an injury you want to go out there and make sure everything is good. I was able to move around, I was able to kind of do stuff that I’ve always been accustomed to doing. Building that relationship, like I’ve talked about with the offensive line. In practice you think you’re building it and doing that stuff until you really try it out in a game situation with stuff moving fast, there’s crowds, it’s loud, we’ve had two away games and then obviously here at GEHA Field at Arrowhead. It’s definitely good to get out there with the offensive line and kind of go through that adversity and find ways to battle through.”

Q: What can you say about the crowd tonight? Did it feel like a preseason game?

MAHOMES: “No, it didn’t. I mean it’s truly remarkable to be here and play in this stadium. Have this crowd and to have it back. I think you - I don’t want to say take it for granted a couple years back, but you’re used to kind of being in this stadium with the crowd and selling out and being loud. To be back here after a year of not having fans, it’s definitely a good feeling. I can’t wait for that opening day. I know it’s going to be crazy.”

Q: When you think of Terez Paylor, what you do think his legacy will be?

MAHOMES: “I think his legacy will be, the obvious one, a great journalist, a great writer, someone that truly understood the game, but an even better person. I think you all know that. I see you all wearing All-Juice Team shirts. I mean he was the guy that broke my foundation’s story and stuff like that because I trusted he was going to put it out the right way and get the best out of it. When you have trust in a guy like that, it’s a great feeling to know you knew a guy like that.”

Kansas City Chiefs vs. Minnesota Vikings

Friday, August 27, 2021 Preseason Game 3 Chiefs Players

LB

Q: How did it feel to get out there and make plays tonight?

GAY: “I feel great man. To be out there again, like I said last week, it’s been a long time since I’ve been in a real game, so to be out there again two weeks in a row, no matter how long I play, it’s a great feeling.”

Q: Did your comfort level translate onto the field for you?

GAY: “Oh yeah. I’m to the point now mentally where I see the same thing I see in practice and I know that comes with time and repetition, so it’s definitely helped me a lot.”

Q: How did you feel your performance was and overall as a defense, do you feel like you’re ready for the regular season?

GAY: “I think we’re doing pretty good man. Of course, you can never be perfect, but you can shoot for it each and every week, learn from any mistakes you made and keep getting better. We’re in the NFL, so everybody’s going to get yards, everybody’s going to score here and there. So, you just have to fix your mistakes when you can and fix it for the next week.”

Q: When you’re able to make some plays going up against another team (after being in camp), what does that do for you?

GAY: “It definitely helps man. To get some action, whether it’s a tackle in the hole or it can be something simple as a pass breakup. Just being in a game, doing what you’re doing, and being able to make a play because you’re doing what you’re supposed to, it lets you know that you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.”

WR MARCUS KEMP

Q: How much do you think your special teams role kept you alive as far as your value to continue developing as a receiver?

KEMP: “So when I first entered the league, I knew that was probably my best chance at staying on a team being an undrafted rookie. So, I kind of took that mindset every year. This is my fifth year now, but I still come in like I’m an undrafted rookie where that’s my best chance to make the team, that’s how I’m going to help. As far as the receiver development, when you’re around guys like Tyreek [Hill], Travis [Kelce], D- Rob [], all the pass-catchers, you kind of have no choice but to get better. So, everybody’s great, and obviously with Patrick [Mahomes] throwing you the ball, you kind of find ways to succeed. So, I think with that, it comes with being around such a great team for so long being a special teams guy. I take pride in myself making the squad, being one of those guys and having success that way as well.”

Q: Did it ever feel like a possibility that you would return to play with the Chiefs? KEMP: “I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. Obviously, you’re taking it one day at a time at that point. I didn’t think I was going to be here if I’m being honest. I had moved on where I thought I had a new team, and I was prepared to be there or somewhere else, wherever I ended up. So, when I got a call to come back, I was very excited for what seemed to be a new opportunity to come back and prove myself again. So, I couldn’t say that I foresaw that I would be here at this point, but when I got the call, I knew I had a chance at doing something like this.”

Q: The TV broadcast showed Patrick Mahomes celebrating after you scored. What was that?

KEMP: “I don’t know where it came from. I’m going to be honest. You make a play and some things just come out of you, and now, I guess I’ve done it twice, so it seemed to be my new thing. The guys on the sideline like to make fun of it a little bit. Imitation is the best form of flattery, right? I like to see it as well.”

Q: How much pride do you take in being a possession receiver and make the catches through contact like you did tonight?

KEMP: “With a body like mine, that’s kind of the role that gets pushed upon you. That’s not the only thing I can do. That’s not what I’m coming in as. I’m just trying to be the best receiver I can be, but if that’s the role I have on the team, if that’s what they need me to do, that’s what I need to do. Whatever I can do to help the team is what I’m trying to be the best at.”