Arrowhead Pride
As Kansas City pursues its third straight championship, would a veteran tackle give the team a better chance?
Coming into the 2024 season, we all wanted to know what the Kansas City Chiefs would do at left tackle. Donovan Smith had been a veteran stopgap at the position for most of 2023 — but in 2024, Kansas City was going after a third consecutive Super Bowl win with second-year player Wanya Morris and second-round rookie Kingsley Suamataia as its only options.
In my mind, both of these Day 2 picks needed some polish. They each had a set of traits worth having — but both would need time to develop before stepping onto an NFL field.
It was widely believed that Morris — with starting experience from filling in for Smith in 2023 — would have the inside track to become the starter. But Morris came into training camp with an injury, so Suamataia got the first-team reps. He held onto the starting job through the preseason. When the season began, Morris was the backup.
Suamataia turned in an encouraging performance against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 1. Even though the Ravens’ edge talent is limited, Suamataia looked capable enough to handle playing left tackle — especially as a rookie in his first start. Considering how raw he had been coming out of BYU, this was a surprise. I wondered if my pre-draft opinion that Suamataia would need a redshirt year would be proven wrong.
But in Week 2 — playing against the Cincinnati Bengals’ star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson — the rookie struggled mightily in the veteran’s torture chamber. Hendrickson routinely beat him around the corner or put him on roller skates with interior moves; Suamataia was losing every snap where he was alone on the left. With the rookie at left tackle, the Chiefs simply couldn’t operate a dropback offense.
Head coach Andy Reid quickly recognized the problem. Early in the third quarter, he put Morris in for Suamataia.
Since then, Morris has started every game — and has played relatively well. He still has some problems with his pass sets. He often keeps his hips closed, so he doesn’t get enough depth to turn and wash a rusher up the arc. In pass protection, he also displays a tendency to lunge, allowing him to get caught out of position.
Still, Morris has improved. He’s held his own by using his long arms (and sturdy base) to keep power rushers from knocking him backwards. As a run blocker in both zone and gap runs, he‘s been effective; he’s been able to either pull or clear traffic for the ball carrier. When he’s been on the field, there hasn’t been a moment where I felt the Chiefs needed to replace him.
Morris isn’t perfect. But when he loses, he’s generally giving up an angle to a pass rusher coming around the arc — something to which quarterback Patrick Mahomes can adjust. But Suamataia loses in a variety of ways;...
