Arrowhead Pride
Who will be starting on Kansas City’s offensive line in 2025? The team needs a fast answer this offseason.
For the Kansas City Chiefs, the most pressing offseason questions surround the offensive line that was manhandled and embarrassed in Super Bowl LIX.
Speaking from the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday, head coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach touched on two of them.
The first is guard Trey Smith — the team’s sixth-round selection in 2021 — who is set for unrestricted free agency in three weeks. Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com recently ranked Smith as the league’s second-best pending free agent in all positions.
Earlier on Tuesday, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported that the Chiefs were making a push to keep Smith in-house before free agency’s “legal tampering” period begins on March 10.
“If you had asked me even the day before the Super Bowl, ‘Tell me where Trey Smith is going to go,’ I probably would have said New England,” said Russini. “I would have picked a team that I know needs offensive line. But from what I can gather, Kansas City is making it a priority to try to keep him. I think they’re going to try to get a long-term deal down with him. I think they’re going to make every effort. So, we’ll see if they’re going to be able to get that done.”
Veach’s remarks all but confirmed Russini’s report, stating that he had already been in touch with Smith’s representation — Jimmy Sexton and Tory Dandy of Creative Arts Agency.
“He obviously would be at the top of the list,” the GM said of Smith. “We’ve already had some good dialogue with him and with CAA and Tory and Jimmy and his crew. So, obviously a lot to work through, but this is the time of the year to do that. Again, we’ve already had some initial dialogue, and that will continue on this week and in the days to come leading up [to] free agency. We’ll certainly do what we can — and we feel pretty optimistic about our possibilities there.”
The second major question on the offensive line is at left tackle. Reid did not have any definitive answers in his comments Tuesday, reiterating that the Chiefs are in the process of evaluating blindside blocking options.
“We try to look at everything,” the coach explained. “Having just finished here a little bit ago, we’re going through that whole process. So we’ll try to improve in general as a football team. [Left tackle] will be one of the spots we look at, for sure.”
One option that does not appear to be on the table is guard Joe Thuney continuing to play left tackle, as he did at the end of Kansas City’s regular season and during the playoff run. Reid stressed that Thuney would be moving back to guard, where he’s earned first-team All Pro nods in the past two seasons.
“Joe’s a natural guard,” noted Reid. “That’s...
