The Chiefs, who traveled to Mankato, Minn., Friday afternoon to begin two days of practice with the Vikings, have a nice mix of youth and experience in their secondary matching second-year Ss Bernard Pollard and Jarrad Page with starting CBs Ty Law (13th year) and Patrick Surtain (10th year).
Defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham compares his safety tandem favorably with former Chiefs Reggie Tongue and Jerome Woods, who also broke into the starting lineup in their second year and the cornerbacks, if healthy, should be solid.
Law, who led the Chiefs with four interceptions last year, is eager for a productive 2007 after struggling through foot problems for much of the last two years.
"I feel better, I'm stronger and I can do some things with my foot that I haven't been able to do," said Law, who estimated that he is performing at 90 percent efficiency. "It's always in the back of your mind, but I can play more unconscious than I have in the past two years. I'm still getting confidence in my play and my ability to cut because it's something new every day. You're still kind of hesitant because you have to play a certain technique to take pressure off. You sometimes try not to break off of that left foot, but I'm doing things unconsciously now like that interception today. I broke on my bad foot and I was like, wow, it works. Hopefully, Lord willing, I'll be 100 percent come Opening Day."
Law also likes the moves Kansas City made at linebacker, bringing in two veterans, Donnie Edwards and Napoleon Harris to flank Derrick Johnson.
"I think it's great to bring in a guy like Donnie Edwards," said Law. "To be able to get him was big and he's been a great, consistent player for a long time and I'm happy that we don't have to play against him again. You can count on this guy getting four to five worth of turnovers a year. That's big for any defense, so I'm glad we got him. We also got Napoleon Harris who is a proven guy that has a lot of speed to run the ball down and I'm happy about it. Hopefully we can get some of these blitz packages in and Patrick Surtain and I can do some more one-on-one stuff from the corners to be a complete defense."
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