And even though he will probably play just one quarter at most, Green doesn’t want to hear any talk about preseason games not counting and guys not giving it their all.

“I just find that hard to believe,” he said. “I think any time you step on the field to play you’ve got to give it 100 percent. That’s the way I approach it, no matter if I play 10 plays or 20 plays or however many, I’m going to approach it like a regular season game, and I hope the other guys on the first team will.”

Green has plenty of reasons to be excited about the Chiefs’ first preseason game. For the first time since he became a Chief he has been able to work with the same starting wide receivers since the start of camp.

He has been working on getting Priest Holmes, the NFL’s leading rusher last year, more involved in the passing game. And with Pro Bowl tight end Tony Gonzalez still a no-show at training camp, he has worked on spreading the ball around to a number of different receivers.

“Without Tony being here it’s given us a chance to focus in on our outside passing game, focus in on some different packages we need to work on without Tony,” he said. “As much as we want him here, it’s also given us a chance to work on some different things.”

He said the biggest benefactor of Gonzalez’s absence has been second-year tight end Billy Baber.

“Not only in the spring but also here in two-a-days,” Green said about Baber, a 6-foot-3, 252-pound player from Virginia. “As much as we miss Tony, it’s kind of helping Billy because he’s been able to get a lot of the work.”

Green said that doesn’t mean the Chiefs want to enter the season without their three-time Pro Bowl tight end.

“He’s the best tight end in the league so you find ways to get him the ball,” he said. “We definitely miss him and we want him back as soon as we can. Hopefully that will happen pretty soon.”

Green said he is also looking forward to getting Holmes more involved in the passing game.

“Even though he did a good job catching the ball last year, the majority of his catches were out of the backfield check-down screens and those types of things,” Green said. “Now we’re going to ask him to do some more things out of the backfield in terms of his route running. That’s one of the areas he worked on in the off-season and one of the areas we addressed in the spring.”

Green realizes the starters probably won’t see a lot of action Saturday night at San Francisco, but he said he will be happy if they can put some points on the board and sustain some drives.

“Obviously none of us want three-and-out,” he said. “None of us want four or five plays and out. We want to be able to sustain a drive, convert some third downs and work on some of the things in the red zone that we need to work on. If we can get those things done in the first quarter, I think that would definitely leave everybody in the right frame of mind.”

Notes: Head coach Dick Vermeil called the situation at right tackle “a mess,” heading into Saturday’s preseason opener at San Francisco. Starter John Tait isn’t expected to return until Monday after receiving 17 stitches in a fight last week with rookie defensive tackle Eddie Freeman while his replacement, Willie Jones, was carted off the field Wednesday with a sore back. Victor Allotey and Marcus Spears are expected to see the bulk of action for the Chiefs at right tackle Saturday night. Spears is also expected to see some action at left tackle while Willie Roaf continues to recover from off-season knee surgery. “The right tackle situation is not in good shape,” Vermeil said. “Thank heavens for Marcus Spears. We’re short there going into the preseason game, but we know that John Tait will be back Monday.” Vermeil said that if this was a regular season game, Tait would probably be ready to go.