River Falls, Wis. -- Their most prominent rookie remained a no-show Friday as rain forced the Kansas City Chiefs indoors for their first two practices of their 2008 camp.
After going through a 90-minute morning walk-through in the indoor facility Friday morning, the Chiefs managed to get about 30 minutes of work in their afternoon workout. But storm sirens began to blow as a fierce thunderstorm moved into western Wisconsin and chased them back inside.
In the meantime, Glenn Dorsey, the 300-pound defensive tackle the Chiefs made the No. 5 overall pick last April, still had not signed a contract, and team president Carl Peterson said he told Dorsey's agent that it was now up to the player's side to restart negotiations.
Peterson said the Chiefs have offered Dorsey "a very high, fair contract in my opinion. But you can't negotiate with somebody if they don't want to negotiate."
The first four picks of the 2008 draft have signed contracts, and No. 6, Vernon Gholston, agreed to terms Friday with the New York Jets. But Peterson said Dorsey's representative still did not wish to commit.
"He just felt he could not negotiate, even though No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 are in," Peterson said. "He said he wants to wait for some other numbers to come in -- six, seven, eight, nine, 10. I don't understand why he has to wait. We know what the numbers are, where they should be. We're not going to change on that."
Peterson said he hoped to hear from Dorsey's representatives on Friday but doubted anything would get worked out right away.
"I wouldn't be that optimistic," he said.
After what amounted to a brisk walkthrough in their facility on the University of Wisconsin-River Falls campus, Chiefs coach Herm Edwards insisted he was not worried that Dorsey might turn into a lengthy holdout the way wide receiver Dwayne Bowe did last year.
"He'll be in here when he gets here," Edwards said. "There are about 78 guys who are here. It's business, and I don't worry about that."
Besides, Bowe missed most of camp last year and wound up having a terrific freshman season, catching 70 passes for 995 yards and five touchdowns in an offense that was dreadful in just about every other respect.
"They all get here," Edwards said. "Dwayne Bowe didn't get here early last year. He was late and we were all concerned. He played pretty good. (Dorsey) will be fine. When he gets here, we'll hug him, we'll harass him. But we're moving on."
The Chiefs, 4-12 last year, are moving on with one of the most competitive camps in the NFL. As many as 10 or 11 of their draft picks could make the final roster. Asked how many positions are open, Edwards paused a moment and replied, "10 or 11."
That's either starting jobs or positions in rotation, such as defensive line. At play are jobs at cornerback, wide receiver and kick returner, among others. Brandon Albert, also picked in the first round, signed his contract just in time to practice Friday and get started at his new position of left tackle. At Virginia, he was mostly a guard.
At his meeting with players shortly after they arrived on Thursday night, Edwards went through last year's miserable season, noting how each game was lost in the nine-game slide that ended the season.
"The sting of what we went through, you can never forget that," he said. "We talked about our inability to finish games. That's basically what it was for us. We went through every game last year, from the beginning all the way to the end, what took place in those games. It's all correctable, all fixable. Another good thing is more than half these guys weren't involved in it. They weren't here."
When the coach went over what would be expected of everyone, rookies came in for special attention.
"I told them don't just come here and show up. It's not about just showing up and trying to survive," Edwards said. "It's about getting better, and about doing the little things. We stressed that in the spring and now we've got to really stress it in camp. It's about getting better as a player and a team. We've got to do the little things better."
