KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Matt Cassel’s first pass of the Chiefs’ initial full-squad offseason practice was dropped by Dwayne Bowe.

His second throw, also for Bowe, went wide of its target.
Good thing for the Chiefs these guys have almost four more months until the Sept. 13 regular-season opener in Baltimore to get things right.
“We’ve had a lot of hard work up to this point, but mainly it’s been in the weight room, and now it’s fun to get back on the field,” Cassel said Monday. “Everything is not sharp right now, but that’s why we’re working on it.
“We’re trying to figure out what we have. We’ve got to build on our strengths and work on our weaknesses. Slowly but surely, we’ll get to where we need to be.”
Which, of course, is really the point of these offseason practices. The Chiefs have scheduled 13 more, plus a three-day minicamp in early June.
Contact isn’t allowed by NFL rule, and the Chiefs don’t even wear full pads. So the finesse part of football, most notably the passing game, is where they can get in the best work.
“Without contact, that’s really what you’re getting out of these,” coach Todd Haley said. “They’re learning the offense, and they’re learning about each other out on the football field. They’ve been learning about each other in the weight room and running, but now they get a chance to learn more about each other on the football field and develop some chemistry there.
“Today, I thought, was a good start. It looked like guys had an idea of what was going on.”
The Chiefs have few, if any, more important tasks during the remaining portion of the offseason than to get Cassel comfortable in his new surroundings. The Chiefs have been unsettled at quarterback since trading Trent Green two years ago and acquired Cassel from New England in a trade last winter to solve the problem.
Although the Chiefs are publicly promoting competition between Cassel and Tyler Thigpen for the starting quarterback job, Cassel has consistently been first in line.
Cassel, Thigpen and Ingle Martin all took a share of the snaps. Brodie Croyle, after last fall’s knee surgery, was limited to light passing in individual drills. Haley said the Chiefs were hopeful Croyle would be ready to practice at the start of training camp.
Cassel is the only one of the group new to the Chiefs.
“It’s new surroundings for everybody, for myself and all the new guys in the locker room, rookies and veterans,” he said. “That’s always tough. You make your adjustments and you meet new people and it’s a new playbook. You just dive right in, and you try get a handle on it.”
He eventually made some progress with Bowe. The two later connected on a couple of passes, including a nice diving grab made by Bowe despite a strong effort from cornerback Brandon Flowers.
“No doubt, this is a valuable time,” Cassel said. “It was valuable for me when I was with New England (as a backup) because that was the only time I’d really get to throw to guys like Randy Moss and Wes Welker, and it’s valuable for me now.
“It’s like everything else. You want to build a rapport and you want to build chemistry with your receivers. So it’s good for them, and it’s good for me. It’s just learning tendencies and body language and everything else you want to learn when you’re a quarterback.
“This is when you really start to build toward the season and you start to learn what somebody does well, what are their strengths and their weaknesses and what we need to work on. From there, you just continue to build on those things and get better and build momentum as you go into training camp.”