Mitchell Schwartz on the Challenges of Virtual OTAs

Kansas City Chiefs RT Mitchell Schwartz is heading into his ninth season as a pro, but this offseason is bringing a completely unique set of new challenges as meetings and workouts have gone virtual.

When talking to reporters on May 29, Schwartz was asked about the difficulties of the all-virtual offseason program the Chiefs have been working through so far, and while Schwartz said he's getting the majority of his usual work, there are some things to overcome.

“I think for me, or guys like me, you get most of it," Schwartz said. "Right now, I guess we’d be into our true OTA practices, and so you’d be on the field, doing football movements, a lot of change of direction. I think that’s kind of the worry. When we work out at home, it gets kind of boring after a while. You kind of do your running, get it over with. You don’t necessarily do all the change of direction and movement stuff, so making sure you’re staying up on that is huge."

This presumably puts even more emphasis on the players' ability to bring on-field intensity to their at-home workouts.

The other element on the table is the classroom side of the offseason. While Schwartz has spent a lot of time in Head Coach Andy Reid's innovative offense, younger players haven't, and Reid surely spent some of that time in his basement adding new wrinkles for the Chiefs' run at a repeat. Schwartz said implementing these new elements has been very different this offseason.

"In terms of the mental side, like you said, Coach Reid, it’s his offense, so there’s always tweaks and new stuff," Schwartz said. "The hard part there is not being able to walk through it and practice through it. Guys learn in a lot of different ways. Some guys watch film or look at the install and kind of get the grasp of it, but it usually takes a few times moving through it, seeing how it fits, seeing how your body reacts to the play. And that’s the thing that you’re missing that’s not really replaceable in terms of working out on your own at home.”

While there are a variety of challenges in a number of places for the Chiefs and the rest of the league this offseason, at least Schwartz has a hobby to add to his at-home routine. Click here to read about how Schwartz has connected with fans from the kitchen.