Left Tackle
 

How do we feel about left tackle by committee?

Great move, or a complete bust.

Hoping it’s a great move

No an ideal situation.

You play to win the game.

Kingsly was spent. He was worn out and was getting beat. They took him out before his confidence was completely shot and the game was lost. It was the right move.

My guess is he'll play again today and have a much easier task ahead of him.

We will see how it plays out, but I would be lying if I didn't admit I'm concerned. Protecting Mahomes blindside is pretty critical. If Mahomes gets hurt and is out for several games, it's likely kiss the season goodbye time.

Like Madden used to say about QBs “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none.” The same is true of left tackles. Hopefully Kingsley can step up.

1) That's definitely not true anymore. We have the best b/u QB we've had in Mahomes career. We also actually have a SB team now and not just a few offensive playmakers that Pat drags to the playoffs every year.

2) Kingsly has more talent than any LT since Fischer was here. There's a balance between learning on the job and protecting Pat but depending on how we handle this it will lead to him being more safe - not less.

1) Lets hope we don't have to find out. You're right, Wentz is probably the best backup we have had in years, but there is a reason he is a backup and not a starter in the NFL.

2) I think Kingsly has the potential to be a good (hopefully great) LT in the NFL, but he is still raw and needs a lot of work.

Morris was a bust after 4 games last year. Now Kingsly is a bust after 2 games. Seems about right for the CP mindset.

I think two years from now, both are quality starters at the bookends.

Can we teach them how to fall down and get tangled up with the defender so it looks accidental?

Just be patient, guys. Criminy.

He's not going up against an elite pass rusher today (or at least I can't name whoever the hell is at DE for Atlanta) so he should have a better game. And if he does have a better game, that's a significant step. That's exactly what Andy said in his presser after the Cincy game regarding Kingsley needing to take a step back in order to take a step forward.

"But the threepeat!" These are regular season games, folks. The Chiefs have a plan and it involves Kingsley being the long term starting LT because they believe he can be better than Morris. If you bench Kingsley now, you're sticking with the lesser talent on the field for the playoffs, and in case you don't remember, the PLAYOFF games are how you win a SB, not the regular season ones.

You all need to calm the **** down. If Kingsley is still churning out Cincy games after the half season mark or so, THEN you can start to do your little pee pants worry games.

Rappaport seems to make it like Kingsley is straight-up benched with Morris starting. Not loving these vibes.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a> will have a new starting left tackle tonight against the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Falcons?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Falcons</a>, with Wanya Morris now protecting Patrick Mahomes blindside. <br><br>My story: <a href="https://t.co/ebSOfpv5cq">https://t.co/ebSOfpv5cq</a><a href="https://t.co/ebSOfpv5cq">https://t.co/ebSOfpv5cq</a></p>&mdash; Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1837792467665432720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 22, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Welp forget what I said.

****, man.

Also, in that Rappoport article, he says "Matthew Judon is no doubt his biggest test"

Uhhhh what?

Matt Judon is a VERY good pass rusher.

Someday I hope they solve this problem. As Mahomes gets older it will be magnified more. Veach must stop messing around.

LT is the 2nd hardest position on the entire team to fill. Good LT’s never fall in the draft. They are always going top 10, 15 at worst.

If we keep winning it makes it that much harder. This is the best he can do.

It's not like benching your QB. You have two young guys you're trying to coach up. They'll both be fine.

Okay, then tell the Chiefs to tank for a year so they can get a top 5 pick.

Oh, you like winning? Then you're going to have to draft Wanyas and Kingsleys and hope one of them becomes good enough.

Yeah, we have 4 OL starters right now that are top notch or close enough. We have this one spot that is one of the toughest to fill, but we've managed to have it be adequate enough to win multiple Super Bowls while we search. Keep after it. Hopefully Kingsley is the answer and just needs a little more development time.

If Morris sucks today I want Donovan Smith on speed dial, though. I know everybody here tells me he sucked all last year but there was never a thought of benching him.

Nice breakdown from Schwartz showing Wanya against Cincy.

https://youtu.be/yLRRtDc5ZYg?si=bhPTv5MjTYu9BTyt

Makes it kinda easy to see why the staff is rolling with him. He looks improved. And now we can only hope this leads Kingsley to similar technical improvement, gives him a chance to focus on himself a little instead of having to do that AND try to combat elite pass rushers.

They're going to start Wanya then have Kingsley report as eligible and line up next to Wanya after sending him in motion to the left side on every play.

Checkmate, Rappaport.

People gotta consider that this isn’t one of those positions where you can just put a guy out there and let him struggle if you think it’s a danger to Pat.

Blindside hits will get him hurt as easy as anything, it’s the last position they can **** around with.

If Worthy has a couple bad reps, it really isn’t gonna matter. When the LT does, it could end your season. So do what you can do improve your game and be ready when your number is called, but until then, we’ve got a GOAT to protect.

Wrong thread lol

This, on top of how few live fire reps Kingsley had in preseason.

He showed well against the Ravens, but let's be honest - the Ravens don't have a pass rusher in Hendrickson's class. Judon is in that discussion, albeit a lesser player (I feel Hendrickson is known to be good yet still very underrated), and he's lining up next to Grady Jarett tonight, another underrated player. Wanya has the experience so he gets the nod, but I won't be shocked to see Kingsley out there in certain situations.

May the best man win.

I wonder if they can’t rotate him in sparingly and just let him build confidence. Go out there, have 8-10 good technical reps in a row, then pull him another drive and let him just kinda anchor the good stuff down at a slower pace.

The game has to be moving real fast for him and that’s a lot when you have technique flaws that need to be reversed.

I just don't understand this move, it completely goes against Andys long held desire for continuity on the line... breaking precedent like this is a real head scratcher

Oh wow! I haven't done a good job of keeping up with things this is news. Interesting!

Yeah it's nonsensical. So if Morris has another Raiders quality game we're going to go back to Suamataia? If they're willing to bench them for poor performance they should've brought in a vet to stopgap/backup.

I think it is a good move, People anointed Kingsley way too quickly.

I think that’s why they’re doing the rotation. They want the competition to hopefully show some cream rise to the top.

I want Kingsley to be a star LT as much as anyone but that position CANNOT be a liability. So if he’s not ready, I guess we will see if Wanya is at least in the interim.

The team did. They named him the starter over Wanya. And they had a broken down Donovan Smith play over him last season as well. They've done nothing to suggest there's any sort of confidence that Wanya Morris is the man for the job, he's just gotten it by default because Kingsley had such a bad showing against Hendrickson.

Here, this explanation of things from Schwartz I think should clear up the why behind the move: https://x.com/MitchSchwartz71/status...73175419326746

It's an interesting one because it's not really yes or no. I think Wanya is the better player right now. Usually when you're deciding between two players, as long as it's close you'll go with the young guy because they can learn and improve more than an older player. But Wanya is young too so age becomes less of a factor.

In terms of technique, I think Wanya gets to his spot and uses his outside hand better. You'll see that in the video I posted. He protects the top of the pocket better than Kingsley right now, which is important for a Left Tackle (duh). Kingsley shows all the ability to do it, if you saw my week 1 breakdowns, but it's not consistent.

On that note, the other thing is Wanya doesn't necessarily lose fast. When Kingsley loses right now it's on initial contact and he's beat quickly. Tough for the QB when that's the case, because Pat usually gets the ball out fast, so if you're giving up multiple pressures and sacks that affect him it's a big problem.

All that being said: I think it's the right call for now. Wanya is the better player from what I've seen, and they're both young. Kingsley's issues are more technique based, so give him some time to work on that in practice while staying ready should an injury occur. Just got to make sure he stays sharp mentally and doesn't take it too hard.

Yeah this isn’t Fisher learning on the job with Smith back there and the team staring at a one and done playoff loss season at best

This is why it would be beneficial to have Donovan Smith or David Bakhtiari as a veteran insurance policy.

Beginning to look then that they made a major miscalculation at LT this season, which is pretty inexcusable given the importance of the position to team success/Mahomes health. Hope it doesn’t cost them a chance at a SB.

Morris is only in his second year. Kingsley in his first. I don't have a dog in the hunt. I hope both guys can be solid starters. They each need playing time. Morris hardly played last year outside of the Christmas game everyone wants to blame him for, even though the entire offense sucked.

This situation won't get easier when you see the schedule. Outside of Parsons, we're probably facing every top pass rusher in the league in 2024.

Yep. If they weren't willing to let Kingsley take his lumps they should've had a vet ready to go.

Miscalculations at LT and RB depth.

The Chiefs were able to overcome the miscalculation at WR last year… so hopefully history repeats itself.

I think, with the bye early this year, they'll do that if Morris struggles also. Id do it regardless.

Didn't Morris get injured in preseason? That might have had something to do with Suamataia getting the nod to start the season.

I mean ok he gave up two sacks and a few pressures to a pro bowl quality DE, didn't they expect him to have some early struggles against top shelf guys?

We have no choice but to trust their judgement, but Andys MO with the line has always been... we'll get some of those things cleaned up as we go forward

So wait until we have a potential Mahomes injury? That's ridiculous. The Chiefs have already shown with their actions that they aren't confident in either of these guys currently.

You can always find more RBs off the scrap heap in this league but a question mark at LT all season is more worrisome to me than even the WR situation last year. Mahomes taking more hits is dangerous to both the short and long term health of this franchise and it’s the single thing they should try to protect against the most each season. I hope they’ve got some idea at a solution that isn’t just throwing Wanya out there and hoping for the best.

I kinda feel that if both Bakhtiari and Smith weren't injury prone at this point in their careers, one of them would be here right now.

If both Wanya and Kingsley show that neither can step up, one of those vets will be here sooner rather than later. Obviously.

I'm not gonna write off Kingsley after two games fgs. First game he done OK. Second game he got taught a lesson. This is the life of most rookies. If he were to have consistent bad performances then that's the time to worry. But not now. Same with Morris.

If we have to go the vet route, and hopefully we don’t, I’d actually like to check in on Bahktiari first.

If he can string together one last 10 or so game run, he’s probably gonna be a really good pass blocker. As good as we’ve had since Fisher and probably better.

Again, the team waiting for that to happen is ridiculous. Because that means Mahomes is taking unnecessary hits.

Good point, Chiefs fans blame Morris for the Christmas day debacle when the whole line was bad that day.

This is great stuff! Kind of turns this situation on it's head. The switch to Morris could be more about Wanya having figured this shit out. I seriously don't care which one of them wants to step up and be awesome. Hopefully both do.

Dude, you are like a total Negative Nancy!

Maybe they like both players' upside, and know that they're going to have to play them to get them through the mistakes of inexperience.

You can't pay everybody, and the sure-fire top flight LT's go far earlier than we'll draft for the next decade plus.

So we'll have some growing pains. Relax.

I just hope LT isn't this years WR where the coaching staff missed badly and trusted young guys that they shouldn't have.

Just help the LT. Scheme it up to help him.

Maybe Wayna has progressed a little and is more ready. Not all rookies can come in and dominate immediately

The coaching staff sees these guys practice every day. Maybe we ought to let it play out before we freak out. I think three rings in five years....maybe they should get the benefit of the doubt. Seems like maybe they know what they're doing.

Whether it's Morris or Kingsley, I think people agree that if the Chiefs are capable of finding an eventual starting LT, they need to pursue that. Because they can't keep trotting out overpaid stopgaps year after year. It would be a shame if Mahomes never went more than 2 or 3 seasons with the same starting LT.

Let's say they signed Smith or whomever at the beginning of the season and started him all 17 games because neither Wanya or Kingsley was ready. So after this season was over, are you saying you'd be totally 100% comfortable with letting the vet walk and going into the year with two inexperienced guys who couldn't beat out the old guy the previous season?

You might say, "Oh, well, it depends on the situation" but I know exactly how it would turn out. You'd continue to be squeamish and say things like, "Man, we should have had the vet in training camp!"

Mahomes is going to have to take a few hits if you want an eventual good starting LT that we can rely on year after year. Sorry.

My problem with it is it's pretty apparent Morris probably isn't going to be the answer. He lost the starting job to Suamataia and while the kid has talent he's greener than a pepper tree and Morris is only playing tonight because Suamataia got beaten THAT badly by Hendrickson.

We do still have Niang. Heh.

Or even Driskell. He made the 53.

If it's a complete bust, my confidence in Andy's OL wizardly will certainly be shaken.

Niang is too busy working on his pork rinds game to be bothered with all of this football shit

Well he's no Trezelle Jenkins. Suamataia​ needs some more time to develop. Not giving up on him. Wanye had some rough games filling in last year. Hopefully he's gotten better too.

IN REID WE TRUST!

It blows my mind how many people have given up on Wanya Morris. He played really damn good last year outside of a bad game against Maxx Crosby. Be nice to have Kingsley and Morris end up being our LT and RT in a year or 2.

Mahomes has the best pocket presence, best internal clock, and is agile enough that he won't be taking unnecessary hits because of average to below average play from a tackle position.

Not promising when he can't beat out an incredibly raw rookie.

Downvoted by mistake. I do agree that Mahomes should be able to mitigate a good chunk of it, but as we saw last Sunday and against the Raiders last year there's only so much he can do when the LT play bottoms out.

The whole line played like shit against the Raiders. All of them. It's like they all went out and got shitfaced at a strip joint the night before or something.

Yeah, so turns out Mahomes not trusting his blindside blockers leads to bad things.

Wanya played well today. He'll have a big test next week against Khalil Mack. Much will depend on whether Bosa is playing on the other side. He was injured today.

Pimping around town in their New Golf Carts Patrick gifted them for Christmas!

Wanya had a pretty good game today. Ride the hot hand

Yeah, I don’t see any reason we’d change right now.

Felt like we ran the ball alright, despite having pretty limited talent at RB.

I don’t think Pat could’ve written a book tonight, but still had plenty of time.

Wanya is the vet now, looks like the extra year helped.

Keep playing him and getting Kingsley in games when possible to keep his head in the game.

Pretty good game for Morris.

Solid game from Wanya- he battled out there

Ive hated on Wanya but he seemed OK tonight.

Lets see him against an elite pass rusher like Hendrickson tho

My only issue is how do we replace Wanya's receiving production?

I've been sticking up for Kingsley but I really just want the damn LT position solved for the longterm just like everybody. Don't care if that's Wanya or Kingsley or freaking Ethan Driskell.