"The way it looks now back-up Geoff Schwartz ... will likely sign elsewhere."
 

So says the guy who runs draftinsider.net, Tony Pauline, talking to people all week at the Combine:

He's also reporting the rumor that the Raiders want to try to re-sign McFadden, but they are unlikely to pull it off.

This is bad, folks. Real bad.

We can plug the holes at nearly every position we have a departing veteran at, but it gets a lot harder at guard if we lose both Asamoah and Schwartz. We only have six draft picks, and now you have to think that the Chiefs will be considering OL with the 1st round pick.

Ugh.

I suppose this also raises the flag for Rishaw Johnson, who looked excellent against the Chargers. And for folks like BossChief, it also raises the flag for Hudson at guard with Kush taking over starting center duties.

But let's face the facts here: Schwartz is an excellent guard that we could have for relative peanuts.

Well, that pretty much blows all of the discussion here out of the water. Pretty much everybody had Schwartz pencilled in as the starter.

This is super bad news.

Well....... ****.

Agreed.

How they go about plugging that hole is anybody's guess.

However, we are going to be destroying in compensatory picks next year if we try to find an in-house or Draft solution for Schwartz.

Albert (surefire 3rd)
Jackson (4th)
McCluster (5th-6th)
Asamoah (6th-7th)
Abdullah (6th-7th)
Schwartz?? (5th-7th)

OL in the first round ROFL ROFL

This.

Why on earth would he leave? He has a home with the Chiefs, and it seemed like he'd pretty much beaten Asamoah out for the starting job.

$

1.23

I don't quite understand why...

We should tag and trade Albert if possible

The one piece of good news on that front is that there is not a clear cut guard that would be excellent at 1.23.

Oh, shit. Except for Zack Martin.

Fuuuuuuck me.

That ****ing sucks. I hope it's not true.

The Chiefs have some money to spend. If they let nearly all their free agents go to other teams except for cheap-o ones like Demps or Jordan, they've got some money they can still spend. And that's even if they try to extend Smith and Berry.

They would be wise to spend SOME of that, hopefully along the offensive line where longterm consistency is more important than it is at other position groups.

If we have to settle for Asamoah, I guess that's what we'll do. But damn, Schwartz would have been nice to keep.