RIVER FALLS, WIS. ? The Kansas City Chiefs’ preseason game against Minnesota Saturday night may be the last chance for some young players to earn a chance at making the roster, head coach Dick Vermeil said.

“Or younger players have to play better this week than they did last week,” Vermeil said as the team prepared to break their camp today and head home.

“That’s our whole goal this week: to see all those young kids play a lot better,” Vermeil said.

Vermeil said he wasn’t happy with the performance of Kansas City’s second- and third-string players in last weekend’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

“We couldn’t even get a quarterback-center exchange or handoff,” Vermeil said. “We had a guy who was a candidate for the Heisman Trophy who couldn’t take a handoff. It’s a different league. You’ve got to do it right.”

With Jarmar Julien hobbled by a sprained ankle, first-round pick Larry Johnson is expected to see more playing time at Arrowhead Stadium Saturday. Vermeil said Julien could see action against the Vikings, but he expected to get a good look at Johnson.

Playing the Hall of Fame Game Aug. 4 gave the Chiefs five exhibition games instead of four this year, which Vermeil said gave the coaching staff more time to study the younger players but also was helpful for the starters.

“Sometimes, four’s not enough,” Vermeil said. “What happens is, you play three and the fourth, no one hardly plays. You get a few plays and get everybody out and you watch the reserves play. Some of them you know they’re not going to be here. This way, you get four real good legitimate preseason games and one more opportunity to evaluate.”

An incident during a Chiefs-Vikings scrimmage two weeks ago left receiver Dameane Douglas with an injured knee and caused him to miss the rest of training camp. But Vermeil said he doubted there would be repercussions.

“I don’t know if there’s any bad blood,” he said. “We had a receiver hurt, but that’s one incident. I thought it was a good scrimmage.”

Vermeil said he was looking forward to seeing rookie linebacker Kawika Mitchell, the Chiefs’ second-round draft pick out of Florida State, play against Minnesota.

Mitchell missed nearly two weeks of camp because of a pulled hamstring, but he was able to return to practice this week.

“We’ve just got to be careful we don’t do too much with him,” Vermeil said. “He’s still not 100 percent.”