Arrowhead Pride
Throughout the Kansas City Chiefs’ offseason leading into the 2026 campaign, the offensive line has been described as both a strength of the team and one of the roster’s biggest question marks.
Across the four spots alongside right tackle, the team employs a two-time All-Pro, a perennial Pro Bowler and two promising players who were highly-touted draft prospects. On the right edge, the Week 1 starter is yet to be written in ink by the Chiefs’ coaching staff.
Head coach Andy Reid assured veteran Jaylon Moore is the current leader for that role during a press conference on Thursday morning, but the team is experimenting with the only undecided spot among the 11 starters for the Kansas City offense.
“Moore has been kind of the mainstay in there, and then we’ve moved guys in there,” Reid said. “We’ll just see, we’ll see what happens. Those other four spots are really pretty solid, and I feel good about whichever one of these guys wins the competition there. I think we got guys that will be okay in that position, it’s just a matter of who ends up being that guy.”
After four years as the understudy to 12-time Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams with the San Francisco 49ers, Moore started on the left side for the Chiefs in his first season with the team, filling in for the four-game stretch when rookie left tackle Josh Simmons was unavailable.
When Simmons came back only to suffer a season-ending injury, the team was already without starting right tackle Jawaan Taylor, so Moore filled in at right tackle for two more starts.
While Moore auditioned for the future of the right tackle position, Kansas City’s former third-round pick Wanya Morris — now a member of the Atlanta Falcons — was set to protect the blind side in Simmons’ absence, something he has done over multiple stretches of his career with the Chiefs.
However, his season ended with an injury one snap into his first start of the year, Week 14 against the Houston Texans, and that was apparently all the team needed to see ahead of Morris’ final year of the rookie contract. With a starting tackle position in flux, the Chiefs worked to find a deal in cutting Morris, settling on a swap of the team’s seventh-round pick for a sixth in next year’s draft.
That says a lot about the organization’s feelings about Morris, but also the prospects behind Moore who may need to step in at a moment’s notice. Esa Pole, an undrafted signing last year who started four games at left tackle, seems to be firmly in the mix as an immediate backup to either position.
The only addition to the tackle position this offseason, so far, has been Kahlil Benson, a tryout player during rookie minicamp. He flew under the radar on draft weekend despite starting at right tackle for the Indiana Hoosiers during the 16-0 National Championship run.
According to Jesse Newell of The Athletic, Chiefs coaches...
