Arrowhead Pride
In a series of articles published over the summer, I covered the 10 biggest questions facing the Kansas City Chiefs in 2025. We’ve already revisited five of them. Now we’ll look at the rest.
Before the season, the Chiefs had two options at left tackle: Josh Simmons and Jaylon Moore. The floor and ceiling of each player was in question.
Simmons had a much wider range of outcomes: he had the physical tools to become an All-Pro tackle, but he was coming off a major knee injury that made it unclear if he would be in proper shape this season. For Moore, the ceiling and floor were closer. It came down to if he could hold up as a starting tackle.
Simmons has been fantastic as the primary starter all season. He has very few plays where he looks like a rookie, his pass protection is elite and he can fit into any run scheme. He is already above average, which is a major win for Kansas City. As he grows into his body and gets comfortable with the system, he will be a superstar. After dealing with a personal situation, Simmons returned to the Chiefs’ facility over the bye week.
Moore started the last four games at left tackle while Simmons was absent. He started out great by showing athleticism in space on screen and run plays. But as time has gone on, Moore has started to show cracks. He really struggled in the Week 11 loss to the Buffalo Bills; he required a chip the entire game and still didn’t play well.
All three of the Chiefs’ starting wide receivers — Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown — thrive best in the slot, while having some limitations playing outside. Head coach Andy Reid had a challenge: bringing out the best in all three while hiding the weaknesses they share.
So far, the Chiefs’ offense has been able to do that with a committee approach. It has helped to have wide receiver Tyquan Thornton play the X-receiver role, while Worthy aligns on the outside quite a bit — rather than the slot. He’s a better route runner than Brown, so Brown gets more time in the slot.
This year, the Chiefs have used more condensed formations — which gets receivers off the ball with less impact from press coverage — and play-action that makes it harder for defenses to jam through traffic.
The majority of the discussion around Kansas City this offseason was about creating explosive plays. Last year, it was a defined weakness of the Chiefs’ offense that cost them in Super Bowl LIX against the Philadelphia Eagles. When the Chiefs’ offense got behind the sticks, it couldn’t generate long plays to mitigate the lack of a running game or successful early-down passing. The unit would get...
