Chiefs notes: Dee Ford working on pass-rush moves

Outside linebacker Dee Ford only played three defensive snaps in the Chiefs’ 26-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, which coach Andy Reid has admitted isn’t enough for the club’s latest first-round pick.

“Dee Ford probably didn’t have enough snaps,” Reid said. “We’ve got to work him into the rotation and do a better job there, which we’ll do.”

Reid said Ford, who is listed at 6 feet 2 and 252 pounds, is slowly improving.

“He’s getting better in the run game,” Reid said. “Right now his strength is the pass game, but he’s doing better. There’s some thing you can do rotationally there where he gets in and has an opportunity to play.”

Ford only got on the field Sunday when the Chiefs used a formation that featured only one interior lineman, Dontari Poe, and three outside linebackers in Ford and starters Justin Houston and Tamba Hali.

Not surprisingly, Ford unveiled his best pass-rush move — a dip-and-rip — on at least one occasion but didn’t record a hurry or a sack.

Ford, who has also shown an occasional bull rush, said he understands he needs to develop additional pass-rush moves.

“It’s natural but it doesn’t work every time,” Ford said of his go-to move. “I’ve got a lot to learn. I’ve really humbled myself. I’m just trying to learn, play fast when I’m out there. … You’ve got to build those counter moves.”

Ford believes he was thinking too much during the preseason, but he knows it might take time for him to develop a feel for those counters.

“The thing about is, say I wanted to come inside,” Ford said. “Soon as you plan it, it doesn’t work. It’s harder than you think. It’s all reaction. I’ve just got to continue to work it.”

Faith in kicker — Special teams coordinator Dave Toub attributes kicker Cairo Santos’ shaky season debut — he barely made one field goal and barely missed another, both of which hit an upright — not to nerves, but a flaw in his technique.

“In that game, he might’ve been a little nervous in the mental aspect of it, but really physically what happened was he was looking (at the ball),” Toub said. “Really, he couldn’t see the kick. His eyeballs were coming up every time he hit the ball. That’s something that can easily be corrected and that’s something we worked on yesterday and we’re going to work on it again today.”

Toub was confident that Santos, a rookie, didn’t have his confidence shaken in the 26-10 loss.

“I think that’ll help him,” Toub said. “The thing about him is if I felt like his confidence or mental aspect wasn’t good, he wouldn’t be here right now. I really feel strong about him going forward.”

Sanders courtship — The Chiefs’ failed free-agent courtship of wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders is now in the past.

On Wednesday, Sanders — who signed with the Broncos in March after the Chiefs apparently thought they had agreed to a deal — went into detail about what happened.

Specifically, he was asked how close he was to being a Chief.

“It was close,” Sanders said. “We still had a lot of stuff that we had to deal with in terms of incentives, but I think we had the foundation of the contract ready, but I wasn’t happy with the incentives.”

Sanders said he met with the Chiefs on a Saturday and spent time at the team’s facility. But things would soon heat up.

“Yeah, I was out in Kansas City, of course,” Sanders said. “I was out there for like five hours though, so we were going back and forth on deals and we couldn’t come to a conclusion.

“But with that said, I had a flight that I had to catch to San Francisco that I ended up missing. So Denver ended up calling right before I was getting ready to sign. I was either going to sign with Kansas City or Tampa Bay or even catch a flight out in the morning to San Francisco.”

Sanders, however, made it clear that he never agreed to a deal with the Chiefs.

“There wasn’t anything in stone, and they tried to make it seem that way, but I’m way past that,” Sanders said.

Sanders, who caught six passes for 77 yards in the Broncos’ season opener against Indianapolis, is glad he settled on Denver.

“I just feel like I was a better fit here in Denver and it was obvious,” Sanders said. “They throw the football. In college, I played under a guy by the name of June Jones, who runs the run-and-shoot offense. I like to catch the ball. In college, we threw the ball on third-and-1, on fourth-and-1. I feel like that’s the mold that Denver has up here and I’m enjoying it.”

This story was originally published September 11, 2014 at 7:29 PM with the headline "Chiefs notes: Dee Ford working on pass-rush moves."