On May 10, 2014, Canadian offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif was selected in the sixth round, 200th overall in the National Football League Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. The 6-foot-5, 315-pound St. Hilaire, Quebec, native and McGill University product became the eleventh player and second offensive linemen ever to be drafted into the NFL from a CIS school. In a multi-part series, Justin Dunk will chronicle Duvernay-Tardif’s journey through his first NFL training camp as he makes the transition from Canadian university football to the NFL level. Here’s Part II, recounting his first NFL game experience against the Cincinnati Bengals at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday, Aug. 7, in his own words.
At the beginning of camp I was doing a rotation between tackle and guard, but offensive-line coach Andy Heck wants me to master the playbook and all the little details of every play in one position first. He doesn’t want me to overthink the playbook. He just wants me to play fast and show what I have, so that’s why he put me at left guard for now. In the first game I was on the second-team offence. There were three guards on the second team and I was the third guard of the second string.
We actually didn’t watch any Cincinnati Bengals film until the day before the game. Coach [Andy] Reid was really putting emphasis on our playbook. For us it was important to execute well and work on plays that were going to be fundamental runs and passes for us during the regular season. I watched a lot of film by myself. For me it was my first experience on an NFL field so it was important for me to get ready and prepare myself as much as I could.
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On the morning of our first pre-season game (kickoff was at 8 p.m. EDT) we were in St. Joseph, Missouri—our training camp location—and left for Arrowhead stadium (a one-hour drive) around three o’clock. The thing that was amazing was the o-line vets were explaining how the game was going to happen. “It’s going to be slower than during practice,” they said. “Expect the defence to take a bit more time to react because they’re going to have to read a bit more.”
First-string left guard Jeff Allen walked me through the process before the game. I was stressed before the game, but I think it was a good stress. I was not over-panicking or anything—I was calm. I knew I was not going to play in the first half and was going to play one quarter, the third quarter. So I took the approach of watching specifically what the left guard was doing on every snap. And then when it was my turn to go on the field, I think I was ready. Of course you’re always anxious about the first hit, but as soon as you make your first block you’re good to go and you get into a rhythm.
It’s easier than practice in the sense that the defence doesn’t know what’s going to happen. They don’t know your tendencies and they don’t know what kind of run or pass play is coming. During training camp we have blitz periods where you run 15 plays in a row—it’s just passing and the defence is only blitzing. Then you run a nine-on-seven inside-run period and the defence knows you’re going to run.
When you play in a game the defence doesn’t know what you’re going to do, so it takes more time for them to react. Even if it’s an obvious passing situation they still need to read so it gives you more time to put your hands inside and make a good block. But in a game, you don’t want to have a mental or physical error.
The second time I went on the field, the second drive in the third quarter, we drove the whole field (a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive). It wasn’t with big plays, but with six-yard runs, 10-yard passes, we drove and ended up scoring a touchdown. It was such a great feeling. We were not lucky on one long pass. We beat the defence play after play throughout the drive and scored.
I think I did well in my first pre-season game. It was a blast of emotion—so exciting. I guess you can take it two ways: You can be overstressed or say, “Okay, now it’s time to go.” I think I was in that mindset. I enjoyed every single moment of that first game.
Even though everybody on the team said it wouldn’t be that loud because it was the first pre-season game, for me—and compared to playing at McGill—I can tell you that Arrowhead Stadium was pretty loud. On third down to hear all the fans screaming, you almost feel the ground vibrating.
I love football, I love to practice, but the game—to compete—it gives you a reason to wake up and go practice everyday. The week of practice after the first pre-season game I was so motivated because now you know what you’re practicing for. It gives you more energy to go compete in every practice because you want to play in the game.
After playing the Bengals we watched the game film with our offensive-line coach. Normally we just watch film with our position group. Every snap is an evaluation on its own. I was so excited to watch that film that I probably watched it four times before we watched it as an o-line group. You learn a lot by watching film. What struck me during the first pre-season game was my hand placement in pass protection. My hands were not always inside during the first game. That’s the key for an offensive lineman to be able to put your hands inside on pass protection to give you more leverage and it gives you the ability to stop the bull rush.
It was really hard to go back to a training-camp mindset after the first pre-season game. We had six days in a row of three-hour practices. It’s really a grind. You have some good days and some bad ones. The important thing is to be able to come back strong after a bad one and that’s what coaches are looking for. It takes everything to find energy to go out there and compete at 100 percent everyday, every snap, every minute of training camp.