WitP: Lelie, Mauia, Colt, Samson, Forney, Veikune

Congrats to Ashley Lelie, who just signed with the Kansas City Chiefs. KCChiefs.com has a Q&A with him. Here's an excerpt:

Q: Are you still the player you were early in your career with Denver? Do you still have those skills?

LELIE: “Oh, definitely. Especially, because I’m so fresh. I haven’t really had any major injuries. My body still hasn’t been banged up. So I still feel like I’m 23 out there.

Q: How long do you figure it will take you to get to know the playbook?

LELIE: “A couple days. Especially with the way camp is and the way everything is kind of drilled on you so hard, you can’t help but to absorb it. Everybody kind of runs similar concepts, they might not call it the same, but once you see it on the field and through the pictures, and start putting the process together, you can just put a different label on it. It shouldn’t be too hard picking up the plays.

In a special to the Star-Bulletin, Mark Brown profiles Reagan Mauia.

"I'm here to help, and contribute wherever I can," he said recently from the Cards' training location at Northern Arizona University. "I know what I can do, and hopefully there's a place for me."

Entering his third season as head coach, Whisenhunt has not used a blocking back since taking over the helm. This time, there may be change, and Mauia impressed with strong lead blocking and standing up tacklers in a recent scrimmage.

Last season, the Cardinals interchanged Edgerrin James (133-514, three touchdowns) and Tim Hightower (143-399, 10 TDs) as running backs. No blocking back was used, but Whisenhunt may be entertaining a misdirection of sorts.

"We'll utilize players based on their strengths," said Whisenhunt, without making a commitment. "(Mauia) has been here only a few days, so I'm anxious to see what he can do."

I think Whisenhunt just needs to look at the math, and it'll all become clear to him.

Bryce McDevitt of Redskins.com profiles Colt Brennan.

“I came into this league to become a starting quarterback,” the Redskins’ third-string quarterback said. “Every day, every year is another step towards that.”

With Brennan jogging onto the field in the third quarter of last Thursday’s preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens, the team and their fans witnessed the beginning of Brennan’s second chapter in the NFL.

Four for twelve. Forty-three yards. One interception.

Neither the start he was looking for, nor the gaudy numbers the former University of Hawaii golden boy is used to putting up.

Thursday night’s unproductive jaunt, however, was a necessary step for the progression of Brennan. It was part of a 23-0 loss to the Ravens.

“To put all of that on him is not fair,” offensive assistant coach Chris Meidt said. “He had a couple of great throws. He protected the football and he scrambled and gained some positive yards. We had some protection issues, so he spent time scrambling around.”

Yesterday was Colt's birthday, but he still had Thursday's performance on his mind.

"You're only responsible for what you go out there and show," he told me. "So I'm responsible for third and fourth quarter, and obviously there were some good and some bad things that happened. That's what's frustrating, because you want to be the person that gets in there and only a lot of good things happen."

Brennan seems to be a pretty optimistic guy by nature, with that whole west coast/Hawaiian vibe, and that's how he's approaching the upcoming games. "These [preseason games] are all just kinda people getting a look at you and a glimpse at you," he said, "and I've got three more chances to do that starting this week at Pittsburgh."

As for the birthday, he's pretty unfazed by that as well. He plans to get some rest, and shrugs off the suggestion that the middle of training camp is a bummer of a time for a celebration. "I've been doing this for sixteen years now," he said, "so at least I'm not changing tradition."

The Washington Times also takes a look at Colt's performance.

Working against Brennan is that he is playing with mostly third-team players.

"It's more difficult [to evaluate] because he had a couple of routes that were just wide open - no one around and the exact pattern and coverage we wanted - and we had a protection whiff," offensive assistant Chris Meidt said. "All of a sudden, he's pocket scrambling, and I thought he did a great job avoiding the rush and getting three to four yards and protecting the ball. It's a bit unfair, but at the same time when the plays are there you have to make them."

Brennan wouldn't say playing with bubble players hurts his chances of passing Collins, who was 8-for-11 for 70 yards.

"Last year I had great success in the same environment," Brennan said. "You have to produce when you're not in an environment that caters to you."

ProFootballWeekly.com has back-to-back items on two former Warriors, Samson Satele and Kynan Forney. Sounds like good news for both:

• Raiders head coach Tom Cable has said there is a competition at center between Samson Satele and John Wade, but we hear Satele is firmly in the lead and is a safe bet to be the starter in Week One. Satele lacks great size, but he's a good fit for Cable's zone-blocking scheme, and Wade had to leave Oakland's first preseason game with a stinger, leaving Satele to take most of the reps.

• What looked like it'd be one of the more intriguing battles of Chargers' training camp already appears over. Kynan Forney was supposed to be in a fight with rookie Louis Vasquez for the starting right guard spot, but between a standout camp performance by the veteran and a foot injury sidelining Vasquez, it looks like Forney has all but wrapped up the job. Whether he can hold on to it all season remains to be seen, but he should be playing with the first team come Week One.

Kevin Acee of the Bolts Blog thinks Forney did well in his first preseason game.

Kynan Forney looked good. There were some miscommunications between he and the guys next to him. But they were close. It needs to get better. First game. Seattle blitzed a fair amount.

And Maria Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal writes about the praise David Veikune has been getting from his coach. Some of these may be older quotes.

Of the 2009 draft class, which now stands at seven, linebacker David Veikune also has drawn a lot of praise from Mangini. A second-round pick, Veikune, a 6-foot-2, 257-pounder, played defensive end at Hawaii, but now is playing inside and outside linebacker.

Asked if he's shown the coaches he can handle more than one role, Veikune said: ''It's an honor for them to have me at all of these positions. That means they have some trust in me, so it's definitely a positive thing.''

Mangini seems to have Veikune targeted for the inside.

''It's a whole new world in there. I like the way he's approaching it,'' Mangini said. ''His transition actually takes a couple steps. It takes time standing on your feet, then assessing everything that's going on inside.

''He's an athletic player, but he's also very stout. He has a good punch. He moves laterally well. He's moving around, sometimes the movements are not always in the right direction, but he's going fast.''