At best Kingsley is another year away from being a year away..

You can't just say DRAFT A FIRST ROUND TACKLE.

Like...who? Who would be in reach, and ARE they a legit first rounder? Probably not. So then you have Kingsley 2.0 and has that helped the situation?

Trade for one? Well, that requires a team willing to move a legit LT, and as it's the toughest position to fill in football besides QB it doesn't happen often. It kind of requires having TWO to be willing to move ONE. Who's got TWO?
The Rams, and that's why Jackson may be available.

Any drafted LT in reach for KC is going to look like Kingsley in year one. You have to understand that. You're drafting traits and hoping to coach 'em up. If they were ready day one, they go top ten.

So anyone else available is going to have serious warts, or they wouldn't be available.

Too old, injury prone, questionable talent, etc.

It's just the way it is. It's reality.

It's all fine and good, I guess, to just scream and throw things about what we WANT.

I understand being pissed. But it is what it is.

I'm very afraid they won't do this. I want them to - it's time. It's not working. Move on and eat some cap to free some cap.

I just doubt they do it...

Have you SEEN the cap hit?

That's not happening.

They're not gonna do anything with Taylor. He's fine at RT.

I didn't speculate on how it would get done, just that it would follow the pattern. But if I had to guess, Veach's first preference would be to get a starting tackle via trade like he did with OBJ. If some team wants to move on due to unwillingness to pay or wanting to reset and load up on draft picks, it can happen.

As far as a first rounder, we'd have to move WAY up - into the top 16. Comparing a pick at #16 or lower to Kingsley is not fair - Kingsley was the 11th OT taken in last year's class. We'd need to trade up in striking distance to get the 3rd or 4th OT in a much weaker class. Is it a guarantee of success? No, but I'd be willing to wager Veach is very aggressive in trying to solve this issue.

You find a team like Atlanta who has major salary cap issues and has a significant investment in a left tackle, Jake Matthews, with a left handed QB.

That is a potential trade opportunity.

At this point I don’t give a shit about 1st rd picks. I’d gladly sell 31, 66 and next years first if it got us to the teens. I’d even add a 2026 4th if need be.

I just don’t care anymore. This is mentally ****ing our QB in his prime. It has to be fixed at all costs.

7 LT’s since Eric Fisher. No wonder Mahomes is playing like a game manager

I'm more of the mind that we trade all of that capital to a shitty team that has a competent LT. They're rebuilding and we ain't so just give them the draft capital to draft a developmental OT along with a few other players and we get the proven LT when we are in win now mode. I really, really don't want to be in a situation of putting all our eggs in one basket to move up to the teens in the draft to select an LB prospect who turns out to be just as useless as Kingsley or Morris. If we are going to use all our draft capital I don't want a prospect, I want a guaranteed starter for the next 4 seasons.

Why is this the assumption, that any non-top 10 OT within reach will be as bad as Kingsley Suamataia? KC clearly didn’t even think he would be that bad or they wouldn’t have picked him as the starter coming into the season. A non-injured Morris wasn’t nearly as bad as KS as a rookie and he was seen as an inferior prospect. Commanders had Brandon Coleman start 12 games as a rookie 3rd rd pick and he never looked close to as bad as Suamataia.

KS was barely a 2nd rd pick at pick 63, an OT seen as a mid to late 1st rounder should in theory be a superior prospect to Suamataia and should have a quicker learning curve, in theory.

I don’t think the process here has to be all that complicated. Free agency starts a month from now, the draft starts 6 weeks after that. Free agency goal day 1 should be to acquire Stanley, Jackson, or Robinson if any are available. If you get one then OT isn’t a dire need in rd 1 but you probably still take one at some point in the draft to keep churning the talent.

If you strike out there then the team is kind of backed into a corner and OT becomes an absolute necessity in rd 1 or 2. You probably sign someone like Humphries or maybe Jedrick Wills as a veteran option and then you get to work scouting and acquiring your guys in the draft, probably Conerly or Ersery. Humphries (or whatever veteran they sign) is slated as the starter from day 1 and you have the rookie, Suamataia, and Morris all compete through TC and into the season.

Looks like a pretty fair, reasonable, and realistic plan A and plan B.

He’s far from fine at $27 million a year the next 2 seasons but there’s no way out of that, he’s 100% gone in 2026 though

Because draft history, especially recent, says a LT taken at 22 has about the same success rate as a LT taken at 42 or 62.

You will not get a first year starter out of anything but a tip 15 pick. Everything else is a lottery ticket.

This.

The idea of drafting a LT is DUMB.

What that means is that we are saying we're not contenders because we JUST SAW WHAT NOT HAVING GOOD LT PLAY DOES ALL YEAR.

We GET a bonafide SOLID LT and then if we wanna draft or develop one that can replace him in 2-3 years fine.

But we don't bank on a rookie. My God we've done this. WE JUST DID THIS.

There is literally no point to it. Why draft a LT outside of rd 1? We have that with Kingsley.

It’s veteran trade, veteran signing or trade up to the teens for one. Time to be serious about LT.

This.

The Chiefs starting LT entering next season has to be as close to a sure thing as possible.

spending all our draft capital to move up and get a LT at like, 15, who’d be the third or fourth best tackle in a class I’ve heard is not great, and could be a complete bust, seems unwise. If we can’t at least get Campbell or Banks Jr (highly unlikely they drop past 10), there’s no point.

We need to get an established LT. See what happens with Stanley, if not him then throw the sink at Robinson. See who could be available in trades. I’d be much more comfortable giving up two 1s and a 2 for a guy I KNOW is gonna be good.

I think it's going to be another OBJ situation. They're going to do something none of us expect. That would be my guess right now.

FWIW here is the projected top 100. Ersery seems like a project. Conerly is borderline.

Josh Simmons is still my favorite. Also like the Texas kid

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I just gave an example of a team who got a year 1 starter in the 3rd rd. I know that’s not the norm but it’s clearly possible. By this logic there’s no reason to take Conerly or Ersery late rd 1 because regardless of being a superior prospect they have the same success chance as a lesser prospect like Grey Zabel or Anthony Benton, right?

Brandon Coleman ****ing sucks and the only reason he even looked passable was bc his QB is as mobile as Lamar Jackson so teams had to control their rush instead of pure pass rushing.

Here is this kid getting owned by Nolan Smith in the NFCCG. First play on the video and then again at 10:39. He ****ing sucks

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F*** yeah man, Veach and the Front Office need to high IQ the next LT move, it needs to be a legit genius move. Pat is capable of basically going to the Superbowl every year and is proving that, but getting smashed in the Big Game because the OL has an achilles heel is getting old now.

You would never of believed in 4 years ago, but the OL in its current state has Pat with happy feet. Brady in the telecast kept going back to Pat's footwork and said that the footwork showed he did not trust the OL at all.

It's not the norm? It's the extreme outlier.

As far as taking a guy later in the first, sure do it. Just don't give up extra picks to do it. It's not worth it.

That doesn’t mean he sucks, he’s still a rookie who was at least good enough to have started all year as a raw prospect. He’s likely to improve and has shown a solid base to grow on. Even if Suamataia struggled all year if he had at least been able to stay in the starting lineup for the season I think we all would mostly have some level of optimism that he would improve.

Coleman apparently only gave up 1 hurry in the playoffs against Detroit. Yes he struggled against Philly but so did Jawaan Taylor and every other OL on our team, not going to hold that against him when he still had so much more positive to show from the season.

So much THIS.

Quite honestly if I’m Veach I’m tagging Trey. The FA market sucks absolute ass this year. It’s terrible. Trey is by far the best OL available and it’s not even remotely close. And yes I think someone will trade with us for him (hello Chicago!).

We can easily create $50 million in cap space if we want to and the first year cap hit for signed players will be low anyway.

Yeah. Get your 3rd rd pick this year if you can

Don’t know a whole lot about him as I am no draft expert, but was he any good in college? Does he have high upside? Also is there a realistic possibility that KC could get him without a Mike Ditka/Ricky Williams type of trade?

I stated my top option was to get Stanley, Jackson, or Robinson before the draft.

But in the event we are unable to acquire any of them, are you really suggesting we go into the draft and just let the board fall as it may knowing we have **** all at LT to protect Mahomes?

Your other post suggested we may do an unexpected move that nobody is talking about and if that what happens then great, but it sure as hell needs to be a pretty damn solid option. We have no clue who may or may not be available, but I’m looking at this from the perspective that free agency doesn’t work out in our favor and there are no clear upgrades available in a trade. In that instance it would be insane to just sit on your hands and hope someone falls in your lap.

Everyone needs to recalibrate what the expectations of a rookie LT will be though.

If you get average play at LT from a young guy, you're fine.

This team cannot afford to throw picks away. Full stop.

If they strike out in free agency or can't make a trade for a vet, we ARE going into next year in the same situation as last, even if they take a LT in the first. It is what it is.

I pretty much agree with all of your takes you have, the LT position needs to be addressed AT ALL F'N COST including Clark Hunt getting involved and his massive pocketbook. Use some of that Taylor Swift money. They need to bring in legit outside experts as well to sit in board rooms for days/weeks all to help make this one next critical decision. It's almost as important, if not as important a decision on selecting who the next QB will be. I don't trust Veach at all when it comes to evaluating tackles he has proven to be a bit inept.

Can't pay Ronnie Stanley on day 1 of free agency if Smith is taking up over $20M in cap.

Why do they trade him? Just because Penix is left handed doesn’t mean you downgrade the LT position, especially if Penix (who had known injury issues in college) were to go down. That would be like KC trading Schwartz because Mahomes was right handed.

Exactly.

People seem to be forgetting we only have 7 picks, have a ton of FA holes and only have 2 WR under contract in 2025.

For WR's I would think Hollywood would want to come back and cheap as he didn't really show anything in his limited 2024/2025 appearances, Hopkins I think would want to stay at some kind of value price as he wants a ring, Juju I think would stay. I don't think the market appetite is great for any of these guys honestly. These guys all want to play w/ Pat as well.

I honestly cannot wait/hope to see Brown, Worthy, and Rashee on the field at the same time.

They're not gonna tag a guard.

No chance.

Brown is just gonna get hurt again.

I will be shocked if Ronnie Stanley or Alaric Jackson are available in March.

And even if they somehow are, I’d be extremely weary bc the Rams and Ravens are not stupid franchise.

KC needs an answer for the LT position and Veach will address it like he always has when he identifies a weakness. But your solution is a very knee jerk reaction. In a salary cap era the key to building and sustaining a dynasty is finding and filling holes without giving up more than necessary for one position.

Giving up what you suggest just to get into the teens, you better be sure that you are drafting the next Joe Thomas and not the next Alex Leatherwood.

Fair enough. I still wouldn't tag Smith. I don't think there's any scenario I would unless they already have a trade ready the minute he's tagged.

Take a look at the FA WR. It’s terrible.

Outside of Tee Higgins it’s Stefon Diggs, DeAndre Hopkins, Keenan Allen, Amari Cooper, Diontae Johnson, Robert Woods and a 29 year old Chris Godwin coming off a major injury.

It’s bad. Really bad.

Would gladly take Hollywood back. He was cheap this years not gonna cost a lot.

The Chiefs are a victim of designed parity. If you are good you have less opportunities at the good players. You have to work harder for diamonds in the ruff and pinch pennies. I'd still take it over baseballs system.

Exactly. The last time KC had a true cornerstone LT was Fisher. How did KC end up with him?

I don't care. Can't make plays from the tub. Bring him back or don't, don't care. He's a non-factor.

I'm no draftnik but everything I'm hearing is there no sure thing at LT, even if you are picking first.

So we are left with FAm overpaying for years or trading with someone who are not resigning their LT next year so are open for a trade. They dont want to pay him because he sucks and they want an upgrade?

We have shit options. None are guaranteed. Thats just our situation. Not anyone's fault other than the design of the NFL.

I'm in the camp of trading draft picks for a vet LT but there is one thing that I haven't seen mention that might make getting a vet or a blue chip LT in the draft even harder..

Every GM watched that Super Bowl. If they have playoff/Super Bowl aspirations they've just seen what losing a LT could mean for their QB or what will happen to them in the playoffs if they don't draft an LT. This game is probably going to make it harder for us to trade for a vet and is likely to move the decent OTs up the draft.

Do not be surprised when Veach pays Trey. I’m already having a bad feeling it’s gonna happen

Why? The only reason I can think of is that he's a Veach drafted guy and only a few of those have be resigned so far. Treys not that strong of a scheme fit, wasn't that good in pass pro and will command the highest guard contract of all time probably.

Yeah, don't let yourself go there right now. Take the emotion out of it. I know the loss is still raw but all we have right now is hope.

Per ESPN:

Describe this offseason in three words: Draft must count

Yes, the Chiefs lost in Super Bowl LIX, but they still have a loaded roster. General manager Brett Veach said "our free agency will be our draft" in the offseason with regard to key player acquisition because of a tight salary cap situation and a long list of the Chiefs' own potential free agents that they would like to re-sign. Kansas City will have four picks in the first three rounds, having acquired an additional pick early in Round 3 by trading cornerback L'Jarius Sneed to the Titans last offseason. -- Adam Teicher

So any hopes of a real upgrade at LT are pretty much null and void. They're not trading up because they have no picks, and it sounds like they have no intention of being players in free agency so will need them all. Guess we get to look forward to D.J. Humphries and Kingsley battling it out, and Mahomes' talent continuing to be wasted with a creaky, gremlin offense.

I can't find that quote anywhere from Veach, but even as lame as Teicher is I don't think he'd put it in quotation marks if it wasn't actually stated. Could just be playing coy, but I doubt it.

yeah i really do not get where people are getting the idea alaric will be available. that shit is a literal pipe dream. rams are not letting a guy who only gave up 3 sacks in 900 snaps walk.

ronnie you can at least make a case for. ravens basically told him to prove it with his last restructure and now that he has there's a good chance they will let him test the market. it's not going to be pretty but you can probably get stanley with a blank check.

That's because they weren't worth the money to us that they are to another team. Again, as designed by the NFL. Maintaining success is almost impossible. We have dont it for 7 years now. Thats pretty damn good.

when did he say it? Things have changed in the past few days...

We are doomed!

Crazy that the Chiefs have $71 million committed to their offensive line for 2025… 4th most in the league… and this is the result.

I know this is sarcasm but, this is the design of the NFL. Teams cant stay on top forever. Eventually, the bill comes due. Our limited options is by design and working as planned by the NFL.

:thumb:

As much as it will suck for fans, I believe the Chiefs need a couple of years to rebuild. There's just too many holes for a reload.

Part of the bill coming due from the last time we revamped the OL. Our RT making top $ but playing average. Thuney and Creed making top $ but at least still playing at a level to earn that money.

We pushed money off from the Thuney contract to the sign someone else. That bill and deal we made a couple of years ago is due this year. At least he's still playing at a HOF at LG.

Not really. Thuney is not a LT and it showed. Caliendo is not a starter in the NFl and it showed. You can say what you will about Jawaan but the majority of the issues came from the left side including Thuney getting walked into Patrick on that 2nd INT

That's what I'm hoping, Teicher doesn't specify because he's a damn clown as we all know. I can't imagine that after watching what they just did that they would sit on their hands if Stanley or Jackson ends up on the market.

I just don't see them doing nothing. If there's anything we've seen from Veach, it's that he's aggressive when problems like this arise.

Taylor has consistently been one of our better lineman, aside from the penalties. The hate he gets seems misplaced to me. I understand people are upset that he gets paid so much, but this is basically the player he's always been. Nobody forced Veach to give him $80 million.

Everyone is saying they can't wait to cut him after next year, but I wouldn't get so excited based on our recent history of finding decent tackles.

Outside of a trade I honestly don't see a fix this off-season that's a long-term one. I think it's DJ back and if Conerly or Simmons is doable, you try for that. Assuming not, you just rebuild the DL, provide more weapons (RB especially) and do what you can to fill the FA gaps.

If that includes another R2/R3 swing at someone like Belton, as staylor says, as another developmental option that might look less disastrous than Kingsley and Morris, cool

Just bring Juju back. No one else will want him and he actually produced in the playoffs time and time again.

I would bet good money he's not going anywhere. I'd expect him to stay over Hollywood just because of the financial end of it. Brown could find a decent offer from some desperate shit team. JuJu isn't getting anything but low wage one year deals at this point, and that might as well be from us.

I'm just still confused as to who on the Chiefs coaching staff thought Kingsley was good enough to start out of camp? Clearly that guy isn't ready for NFL play anytime soon or in the near future and its back to the drawing board again this offseason.

He was fine against Baltimore. Hendrickson destroyed him physically AND mentally. And they just gave up on him after that.

The coaching staff did him zero favors.

If you have looked at the market right now for OLineman and what they get paid, Taylor is pretty inline with what he provides vs cost. By cutting him you now have to replace him on that side for equal/lesser cost which might not be as easy as we think.

Most of the charts I saw showed that we have Morris and Thuney more help than Kingsley.

We also adjusted to a short passing game with Thuney.

Probably should’ve done that with Kingsley from the beginning while he developed.

It was a complete botch job. Reid has infinite good will in this city but he and the organization deserve a ton of scorn for how LT was handled.

No it's not.

You have Thuney with a 26M cap hit, and its easy to extend lower his cap hit.

Taylor also has a 27M cap hit, and while we can all bitch and moan about it, you just deal with it this season.

I mean that right there is 53 of the 71. And Creed is another 10.

This is why you always have to be drafting offensive linemen in the 3rd, 4th, or 5th rounds. Not only are there 5 spots on the line, they all will cost you real deal money on second contracts.

While the Super Bowl has shined a light on our deficiencies, its not like we are without developmental talent along the line, thanks in part to spending a 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 7th round picks on guys. Did we find the starting LT we are looking for? Probably not, but I think Morris and Suamataia have a real shot at eventually starting at RT and G respectively.

I'll be honest, I don't really know what I'd do in the draft as far as LT goes, the Chiefs are in as difficult of a position that you can be in. I fall into the camp where taking a LT at 31 doesn't really change our lot in life. Trading up is going to cost you what the roster badly needs, youth, speed and rookie contracts at key positions. Cam Robinson doesn't interest me, but finding a stop gap LT via trade or FA would be preferable.

As I look at the draft:

Round One: LT or DT - I would love to be able to grab a dynamic DT in round 1.

Round Two: DT/RB/CB - If you don't grab a DT in the first you better get one in the second because they are all going to be off the board. If you want a stud 3 down dynamic RB, you can't wait. Yes there are talented backs to be had later, but if you want one of the top guys you have to go here. I put CB on my list because if there is a kid you love sitting there take him at the end of the 2nd or top of the 3rd.

Round Three(2 Picks): CB/EDGE/RB/WR/OL - There is a lot of different ways to go with these two picks. I want play makers in these spots, but if you don't take a LT in the first, you probably need to keep adding to the line.

Round Four: OL/DB/RB: I think this is the round where you can make a pick that could really change the OL. So while we have Suamataia and Morris, if there is a nice guard sitting there in the 4th that you think can be a starter go get him. Thuney showed he has plenty of gas in the tank, but adding another guy to the mix might be the wise move to make and if you hit on a guy like we did Smith, you just helped your cap situation out. I'd roll the dice on the right guy.

He had 4 catches the entire postseason

You're adding a top 10, 24 year old NFL WR this offseason.

Have a good draft, let last years picks develop more, go from there.

Good lord guys.

Juju had 4/6 for 76 yards
Brown had 5/13 for 50 yards

I don't want either of them back to be frank but given the choice and cap implications Juju is by far the easiest choice. For how supposedly good he was at getting separation Brown couldn't do ****ing shit against defenses that pressed him at the LOS.

More than what Hopkins gave us.

Jared Wiley got 20% of the snaps from the jump as TE3. He’ll be back and I think they like him a lot.

BUT, Hopkins DID give us a killer drop in the Super Bowl. That was so cool to watch.:shake:

Hopkins whining about the ref narrative really pissed me off, on top of him being a completely worthless blumpkin when we actually needed him.

Hollywood Brown coming back is whatever. I'd prefer they didn't given it'll probably cost capital that we really need elsewhere but if it's reasonable then whatever. Hopkins is ****ing dead to me. Don't ever want to see him again.

I think this is potentially the biggest missed opportunity of the season.

That said, there's no reason to believe that Kingsley wasn't learning in practice and just by observing on a week to week basis. Maybe not as fast as he would have, but he improved.

IF he's a starting caliber LT -- acknowledging how big that IF is -- he'll be much more capable of demonstrating that next season than he was this season, regardless of what happened this year.

But it would've been interesting to see if he could've gotten to mediocre over the course of the season and allowed us to keep Thuney inside.

I suspect he probably wasn't. The coaches saw what he was doing in practice as well and never seemed to even consider putting him back out there at OT. Trying to limp him through the regular season in the hopes he was playoff ready when that time came was likely a fools errand.