Oftentimes, football is a game of adjusting to whatever cards you’re dealt. Despite boasting a sparkling 13-1 record on the year, the Kansas City Chiefs know that more than just about any NFL club. Andy Reid’s team has responded to multiple forms of adversity – primarily in the form of injuries – in its title defense campaign.
Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns saw Kansas City do it yet again. With left tackle D.J. Humphries out of the lineup due to a hamstring injury, left guard Joe Thuney got kicked over a spot and had Mike Caliendo take his place. It wasn’t for a run-of-the-mill assignment, either, as reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett waited on the other side of the line.
Although Thuney wasn’t perfect in Week 15, he was good enough to help the Chiefs bring home the win. In his postgame press conference, head coach Andy Reid tipped his cap to the 32-year-old for a job well done.
“I thought Thuney, asked to play left tackle – he hadn’t done that since college – got out there and really battled and did a nice job against one of the best defensive ends in the game right now. He battled his heart out.”
Thuney did have some experience at left tackle, albeit seemingly not enough to be ready for a player like Garrett. Prior to Sunday, the All-Pro had racked up 88 career snaps there according to Pro Football Focus. All but one of those were as a member of the Chiefs, with 55 coming in the 2021 season, 25 last season and seven in late-game relief of Wanya Morris a few weeks ago. All things considered, this was a huge ask, even for such a consistently excellent player.
To say Thuney held his own would be hitting the nail on the head. While quarterback Patrick Mahomes did get hit plenty, including one that saw him suffer an ankle injury, Week 15 was the first game he didn’t get sacked in nearly two months. He’d been taken down three or more times in three consecutive contests heading into Sunday.
With Morris struggling in recent weeks and Kingsley Suamataia’s rookie year going about as poorly as possible, Reid’s hands were somewhat tied. Adding in the injury to Humphries, he decided to give Thuney a shot and he made the most of it.
“Well, the injury on D.J. and then Joe had taken a couple of snaps there the last week,” Reid said. “I just felt comfortable [with] a veteran player. I scouted him as a tackle, so I knew he’d get out there and battle.”
According to Next Gen Stats, Thuney was matched up against Garrett on 24 of his rushes and surrendered six pressures. The elite defensive end had eight total pressures on the afternoon, but a handful of those are inevitable. On tape, Thuney had numerous reps where he set a quality anchor or moved well to adapt when Garrett lined up wider than most pass rushers.
The end result was a passable performance in a 14-point win for the champs. It’s unclear whether Humphries will be available for Saturday’s game against the Houston Texans but if not, things could still be much worse than Thuney filling in for another weekend.
