Arrowhead Pride
The rookie comes to work and gives his best effort every day.
There is no sugarcoating it. Kansas City Chiefs rookie left tackle Kingsley Suamataia had a lousy day filling in for the injured Wanya Morris last Sunday against the Denver Broncos. The bright side is that there are a lot of good teaching moments on tape for Suamataia.
Speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon, one of Suamataia’s teammates and fellow lineman, right guard Trey Smith, said that Suamataia is putting in the effort to improve.
“Kingsley’s a consummate pro,” said Smith. “He comes to work every single day and is trying to get better at his craft.”
When he was asked what tips he might have for his younger teammate, Smith said that he needs to keep doing what he is already doing.
“At the end of the day, just keep on working — just like all of us, we’re trying to be better football players.”
Andy Reid also came to his rookie left tackle’s defense, saying that the coaching staff has not lost faith in the BYU product.
“You’ve got good players on the other side that play against that left tackle,” Reid reminded reporters, saying that you have to weather the peaks and valleys as your young players develop. “When you’re young, you know there’s going to be a couple of hiccups in there. You just got to bear with it as they grow.”
One thing that Suamataia cannot afford to lose is self-confidence. Smith said that all success in this league is, first and foremost, driven by your belief in your own abilities.
You have to have the confidence to complete your job and the confidence to go out there every single day and think you’re the badest dude on the field,” explained Smith. “I know when I was young, I had a good group of core veteran guys. If I had a poor game where things weren’t going my way in practice, I had a good support system to just keep your brothers up and keep going. But like I said, confidence is a big tenet of the game of football.”
That’s why if you pay close enough attention to the field between plays, you will see guys in Kansas City’s huddle pumping each other up.
“We always dap each other up, and we all try to stay on the same page.”
Smith said that one teammate, in particular, excels at uplifting his teammates.
“I think Travis Kelce is a great dude and a great example of that,” said Smith. “Every time we were in the huddle, he’s always trying to fire everybody up and bring juice into the huddle and, you know, breathe life into each other.”
It will be a long road for Suamataia to get where he wants to be, but if he can do it anywhere, it’s in Kansas City with this supporting cast.
