On Friday, the Chiefs will begin a three-day mini-camp. The practices on Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the only mandatory appearances that players under contract must make during the off-season.

But for the 2008 Chiefs, the mini-camp is going to be just three more OTAs. The Chiefs have 91 players on their roster and during OTA sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, they had 89 players on the field, with 80 of that group taking part in practice. The only missing players were tight end Tony Gonzalez, still at home in California with his new daughter, and college free agent running back Kalvin McRae, who under NFL rules must wait for the end of the spring term at the University of Ohio.

On Monday, we’ll provide an update on the mini-camp weekend. But here’s some of what the Chiefs got done in their OTA sessions this week.

Offense
A wildcard candidate to make the 53-man roster at wide receiver this year is going to be Maurice Price. Signed last year as a college free agent out of Charleston Southern University, Price spent the 2007 season on the injured reserve list because of a shoulder injury. He’s completely recovered and this week Price made several big catches in the two-minute drill. In fact, when the Chiefs No. 1 offense ran the two-minute drill on Thursday, Price was one of three receivers on the field with Dwayne Bowe and Devard Darling.

Speaking of the two-minute drill, the star on both Wednesday and Thursday was quarterback Tyler Thigpen. On Wednesday, he took the No. 2 unit down for the only offensive score of the drill, hitting Price for a touchdown. On Thursday, he took the second unit in for another TD, throwing a strike to wide receiver Will Franklin. Chiefs fans haven’t really seen Thigpen play since he joined the team in the first week of the regular season, claimed off the waiver wire from Minnesota. But the young man has a powerful arm and he made good decisions in the fast-paced work.

With Gonzalez gone, third-round draft choice Brad Cottam is running with the first team. His strength coming out of the University of Tennessee was supposed to be his blocking, but Cottam is showing he could be a factor in the passing game. He gets down field and he’s a big target at 6-7.

Defense
In the two-minute drill on Thursday, the Chiefs No. 1 defense took out the No. 1 offense in four plays. Safeties Jon McGraw and Bernard Pollard were all over the field, knocking down passes. They were dominating in that series and continued a trend for Pollard, who has become more vocal on the back line this year, his second as a starter.

During Thursday’s work, Alfonso Boone came off the left end and drove right tackle Damion McIntosh backwards and eventually McIntosh fell on his behind as Boone roared past him.

This week, the Chiefs went to the nickel defense for the first time, this is how they lined up: Turk McBride, Boone, Glenn Dorsey and Tamba Hali from left to right across the front, Donnie Edwards and Derrick Johnson at linebacker and Pat Surtain, Brandon Flowers and Brandon Carr on the corners. Pollard and McGraw (filling in for Jarrad Page, who is still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery) worked at safety.

Middle linebacker Napoleon Harris sat out the two workouts this week with a sore knee. Nate Harris replaced him with the first defense on Wednesday, but Pat Thomas worked there on Thursday.

Special Teams
The best kicker of the week was veteran Nick Novak, who hit all six of his field goals. On Thursday, all three kickers made all three kicks. That was impressive considering they were battling a cross wind in the practice

Interesting personnel alignment on the No. 2 punt team at the personal protector spot: rookie receiver-returner Kevin Robinson. This is not normally a spot where you see a rookie, let alone a rookie receiver.