On Thursday, ESPN’s Seth Walder published an article grading each NFL team’s offseason. He gave the Kansas City Chiefs a passing grade — but it should be noted that he awarded just one D — and only 11 teams were given lower grades than Kansas City.

Kansas City Chiefs: B-

Biggest move: Trading G Joe Thuney to the Bears
Move I liked: Signing QB Gardner Minshew
Move I disliked: Signing OT Jaylon Moore

Fresh off losing a Super Bowl in part because the offensive line struggled, Kansas City made the surprising choice to deal Thuney, one of its very best offensive linemen. It did make some sense, though. Thuney is 32 — not necessarily old given offensive linemen can play longer than other positions, but not young — and was in the last year of his deal.

The Chiefs needed to make some tough choices and opted to keep 26-year-old Trey Smith, a good guard (though not quite good as Thuney), instead. It was a long-term decision. The Chiefs opted to franchise tag Smith, though they had to overpay him because the tag price is based on all offensive linemen rather than only guards. In other words, Smith was paid at a tackle price. Kansas City could still work out a long-term deal with Smith before the Tuesday deadline.

Even without Thuney, the more serious question was at left tackle. Last year’s mish-mash of Wanya Morris, Kingsley Suamataia, D.J. Humphries and an out-of-position Thuney wasn’t good enough, and the Chiefs had to address the spot.

The best option was Ronnie Stanley, but he flew off the board before free agency. Instead, the Chiefs opted for former 49ers backup Jaylon Moore for $15 million per year (and $21 million fully guaranteed), a risky move. Not only was Moore not a starter (to be fair, he was behind 11-time Pro Bowler Trent Williams), but when he played, our metrics were not a fan. Moore has a career 83% pass block win rate at tackle and was at 81% last season, which would have ranked third worst at the position had he qualified.

But the Chiefs didn’t just rely on Moore. They used the No. 32 pick on Josh Simmons, who could compete for the starting job. On one hand, one of Moore, Simmons or Suamataia could win the job and step up. On the other, it’s more likely that tackle will be a weakness again, as most first-year tackles struggle. Elsewhere, Kansas City added cornerback Kristian Fulton on a $10 million-per-year deal. Signing Fulton to support Trent McDuffie is a good idea, as cornerback play varies significantly from year to year and Fulton performed at a high level with the Titans in 2022.

Perhaps the Chiefs’ best value move was signing Minshew to a one-year, $1.2 million contract. Considering how valuable a backup quarterback can be, getting Minshew — who earned $15 million last season with the Raiders – at that contract was a total bargain.

My take

While I’ll agree with Walder that the decision to trade Thuney was a surprise, the move made perfect sense after we’d thought about it for a few seconds. (This is one of the reasons why Kansas City general manager Brett Veach has his job, while I have this one: he’s able to come up with these kinds of ideas — and has the guts to try them).

I disagree, however, that the Baltimore Ravens’ left tackle Ronnie Stanley was the best man to play left tackle in Kansas City. What sense does it make to create a chunk of cap space by trading a 32-year-old guard — and then use all of that space on a 31-year-old left tackle who has missed 36 games over four of the last five seasons? Yes… signing Moore to that $15 million AAV deal was risky, but signing Stanley to a long-term deal would have been even riskier. Moore’s presence, at least, helps mitigate the risk associated with selecting an injured (albeit excellent) tackle in the first round — and will give the Chiefs another solid option when it is time for Jawaan Taylor to move on.

I said it at the time — and I continue to believe it: signing Stanley (or Dan Moore) for big money was a move the Chiefs could not afford to make at left tackle. Getting Jaylon Moore on a smaller deal was exactly the right way to protect the team if it could not get Simmons in the draft — or if the rookie needed time to recover or develop.

I think this was a much better approach for Kansas City than Walder does — and as a result, I think he should have given the team a higher offseason grade.