Houston's defense is terrible.

With Wiz at LG and LDT at RG, Reiter is definitely the weak link. He's not terrible terrible but below average for sure.

let's just all agree that we need to be 'better' in that spot.

here's a thing I've been thinking about-

One of the reasons that Andy is real hesitant to mix things on up on the line is that so much of line play is familiarity; each guy knowing what and how the other is doing so that it's all working together.

You've got a few seasons more of your tackles being in their prime. Wiz is obviously near his end. You need to upgrade your interior. So this is the offseason you need to do that. If you wait any longer, you'll have to rebuild the whole thing.

If you do it THIS offseason, you can get a couple of years of continuity with a little luck before you've gotta start on your OT situation.

when I think of those teams that take two of three in their eras of dominance, I notice that along with the elite QB, you've usually got real good OL's that have continuity like the Cowboys line. The Pats of course have had such a long run of dominance that there have been a few groups but I think the concept still holds up.

Um....both?

Reiter is playing better. I won't say he's playing truly well, but he's leveled out in pass-pro to where he's solid and oftentimes an asset. He's routinely a liability in the run game, but he's acceptable in pass pro. He played probably is best game of the season against the Texans and that's likely a combination of both things. A) He's playing better (and yes, Wiz is probably helpful there) and B) Houston's front is pretty lousy.

Jurrell Casey will be a massive test for him. He can go a LONG way towards keeping himself in the starters conversation next season on Sunday.

No, he is not a 'good' lineman. He's not necessarily as awful as he's looked at several points throughout the season, but he isn't good. By definition, a guy who's prone to getting obliterated as often as he is cannot be 'good'. Consistency is a skill that matters a lot, especially for interior linemen. Reiter generally lacks it.

Look at it this way - we have an IT plan where we swap out 20% of our PCs every year. It keeps us from having to come up with $100K in any given year when all of our computers eat shit.

So the Chiefs should probably be looking to turn over a player or two on their OL every year. You get 80% throughput that way and never have to burn an entire off-season worth of draft/cap capital on rebuilding that line. Worse still, doing it that way likely yields a far slower, tougher development curve.

Yeah, it would probably be a good idea to be constantly shopping for at least 1 replacement starter every year. As has been noted, Wiz is old, Reiter is mediocre and LDT is expensive. One of those guys are coming back, probably 2 of them. But we've gotta figure out a way to get at least one of them cycled out just to keep a meaningful 'replacement' schedule.