Again, with who and for who exactly? It's much easier said than done. You don't think Veach and Reid want to not have to worry about it?

Or we could sit tight and take a TE at 31

They tried and failed this past draft. How about quit ****ing being stingy and get the deal done, even if it isn't a completely fair deal. Especially considering what usually happens when Veach fails to trade up is he ends up reaching to fit need instead of BPA.

I can't claim to have really dug through the tape on the guy.

But I also take some exception to the idea that Smith had long stretches of ass last season. He was always just...credible. Sure, had some bad games, but so will DJ.

Now might Humphries be better than what Smith could offer this year having aged another season and sat out this long? Sure. But I think you should place a reasonable baseline for Humphries at where Smith played last season. If you expect more than that from a guy who's coming off a serious knee injury and who's career was...solid...well that just seems unwise.

He's going to have to be part of a solution (along with Pacheco and the return of Brown, and hopefully additional confidence from Pat/chemistry with Worthy). But he's not going to be a panacea. At his best, he wasn't THAT good. He was really good in 2020 but otherwise he's been...solid. A Cam Robinson sort of guy who's a better pass blocker than run blocker but not ELITE pass blocker. For that matter, he's been similar to Taylor over his career.

As I said in the other thread, I think Taylor caliber play on the left side is the MOST you can reasonably ask from him.

That’s all good and well but it will have consequences. We see how much the defense regressed without Jaylen Watson.

He’s probably gone. Chenal might be too.

You’re probably looking at multiple 1sts and probably multiple 3rds tbh. Maybe more since we pick at the very end of each round and those picks aren’t seen as 1st rd value by other teams.

Also good luck talking team in the top 15 into trading down that far to not have a chance to get one of the handful of first rd graded players.

Smith was a constant baseline of below average play. Not ideal but more workable than Morris who just varied too much game to game.

Consequences like having a lower PPG currently than any Alex Smith Chiefs team? Consequences like Mahomes having by far his worst statistical season yet and regressing in most advanced metrics? Because those are the consequences of this shit tier LT play we've been subjecting him to.

Neither did I. It always seemed like he played better than Brown to me. My memory might be skewed though because Brown tended to get beat by the same bendy speed guys over and over in the same game while, I seem to remember Donovan Smith being much less susceptible to that, but much more inclined to get beat by power and bull rushes, so his pressures might've just been more spread out.

I think experience is going to go a long way to shore up some of this. Willy Roaf isnt walking through that door.... but, hopefully, an experienced vet who can stave off some of the incoming heat and give Patrick a chance.

I think the point is that even top 10 LTs have a pretty spectacular bust rate.

Trading up even into the top 10 isn't going to guarantee that you've 'fixed this shit' at all. In fact, history says you've given yourself maybe a coin-flip chance. And in the process have likely burned 2 first rounders in so doing.

Latham and Alt look like pretty damn good players, but both went top 7. Meanwhile Guyton, Fashanu and Mims have been pretty damn rough. They wouldn't have 'fixed' anything.

Paris Johnson looks good this year out of the 2023 class - he was 6th overall. Darnell Wright has been solid this year but he's a pretty pure RT -- that's why he slipped to 10. Anton Harrison has been awful and Dawand Jones even worse.

Go back to 2022 and you can find some pretty good players in there in Raimann, Ekwonu, Zach Tom, Charles Cross, Braxton Jones, Luke Goedeke and Rasheed Walker. That's a pretty fantastic OT class that saw 3 go in the top 10.

Edwonu has disappointed but is playable, likewise Evan Neal. Cross at 9 is probably the 'gem' from that group. That said, you halso have Goedeke who went in the 2nd, Raimann who went in the 3rd, Lucas who went in the 3rd, Jones who went in the 5th and Tom that went in the 6th and Walker in the 7th. Shit, we took Kinnard before Jones, Tom and Walker came off the board -- that's a scouting failure, not a draft position problem.

There were more good OTs to come out of the later rounds that year than there were in the 1st.

It just isn't as simple as "Trade up and take a guy!!"

We may really need to evaluate what it is we're looking at/for with the position. Because trading up isn't going to do us much good if the same calculus that had us valuing Kinnard over Jones is what's going to drive us. Or Bryan Cook over Lucas and Raimann.

We need to do a better job evaluating the position.

Much rather go up and take a home run swing than what they've been doing recently. They've burned two 3rds and a 2nd on bums like Niang, Morris, and Suamataia and traded the equivalent of roughly a mid 2nd for Brown Jr. If you're going to dump that much capital into the position may as well go for broke and try for a guy that can be the blindside blocker for a decade.

Chiefs aren't drafting 31

Spot on. If Humphries ends up playing well and they don't pay him, they damn well better go out and get someone even better next offseason, no matter what it takes. I have to imagine Pat has had just about enough and hopefully is relaying the same message to them.

It should be quite clear at this point that Mahomes is not going to be what he should be without a goddamn competent LT. This pussyfooting bullcrap needs to stop, get him a damn left tackle. I don't care if the value isn't there, I don't care if you have to overpay, just do it.

Two late 3rds and a late 2nd will get you into the early 2nd.

"That much capital" is nothing close to what you're suggesting giving up. You're talking about THREE TIMES as much draft capital to get into the top 10 as what we've spend on those three guys. And you seem to be hand-waiving that.

This isn't close to an apples and oranges comparison.

We won’t want to develop the LT we draft anyway. Despite how many LT’s have struggled massively out of door, fans will five up on that pick the first time he struggles just like they did Eric Fisher.