The Chiefs needed just five yards on a second-down snap last Sunday in Denver territory, and wouldn’t you know it, Kareem Hunt stood wide open for a pass with some room to run after the catch. Easy enough, right? Well, except quarterback Patrick Mahomes never saw him.

You can’t blame him for it — Broncos edge rusher Nik Bonitto turned the corner and swarmed Mahomes’ way in less than 2 1/2 seconds. Untouched. Rookie left tackle Kingsley Suamataia played the role of an automated gate against the Broncos, routinely opening the lever for whomever, whenever. This became such an issue that the Chiefs asked an injured Wanya Morris, Please, is there any way the bone bruise on your knee feels healthy enough that you can re-enter this game?

Think about the big picture of that. This is where the Chiefs, the NFL’s lone undefeated team, sit: Morris, an average left tackle on a good day, turned into one of the Chiefs’ most valuable players, all because of the options behind him. (The Chiefs’ Plan B for the future, by the way, ought to be Joe Thuney sliding over from guard.) It’s a situation that can have a lot impact on a game, even for an offense that employs one of the best sack-avoidance quarterbacks in football. Mahomes can escape pressure. But the left tackle situation requires him to do so far too frequently. Morris and Suamataia now comprise the most significant storyline for the back half of the Chiefs’ 2024 season.

It’s no longer about the injuries. It’s whether the left tackle can just not derail the offense. Kansas City Chiefs offensive tackle Kingsley Suamataia (76) blocks for Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt (29) in the first half on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Emily Curiel [email protected] Here are some pass rushers waiting on the back end of the Chiefs’ schedule: Greg Rousseau this weekend in Buffalo; Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa in the same game; Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt, Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter looming.

That’s not an easy gauntlet for elite left tackles. And the Chiefs do not have an elite left tackle. But let’s be clear about something: They haven’t had one for quite some time. How quickly we forget that the left tackle position was a storyline in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Oh, and that it’s set to endure in 2025, 2026, and, well, you get the idea. The fact that we’re talking about this position — wondering out loud about this position, or perhaps even worrying about it — is not unique to the present.

With limited cap space and even more scarce early first-round draft capital, the Chiefs are locked in a relationship with such drama at one of the premier and hardest-to-fill positions in the NFL. They are on one of football’s all-time great runs despite the circumstances at left tackle, not because of them.

THE TURNSTILE AT LEFT TACKLE IN KC

It was March 2021 when the Chiefs made a push to land star offensive lineman Trent Williams in free agency — such a strong push that Williams called the head coach of his current team, 49ers boss Kyle Shanahan, and told him, “Hey, man, we need to hurry this up, if you get my drift,” as he later recalled to reporters, per ESPN. Here are the ensuing four seasons:

• In 2021, a month after losing out on Williams, the Chiefs traded a first-round pick to the Ravens as part of a package to land Orlando Brown, and then asked Brown to move from right tackle to left tackle. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) is sacked by Denver Broncos defenders in the first half

• In 2022, with Brown now a free agent, the Chiefs applied their franchise tag to him, paying him the average of a top-five left tackle on a one-year deal. We spent the summer wondering if he’d hold out. • In 2023, the Chiefs signed Jawaan Taylor, a right tackle, with the hope that he could move to the left side.

In May, already prepared for offseason workouts, they signed veteran Donovan Smith to a one-year contract. • In 2024, they gave the starting spot to Suamataia, a player they’ve benched twice this year, taking him out during the middle of those games like an ineffective starting pitcher. It’s been a carousel of anxiety. And it could be that way for awhile. The output — that list that recaps the last four seasons — doesn’t show it, but the Chiefs have prioritized left tackle for some time now.

You think they have any interest in this year-to-year speculation about whether they can adequately protect Patrick Mahomes’ blind side? For a half-decade, before assessing the Chiefs’ needs heading into any offseason, we’ve started the conversation in the same spot: What can they afford? That’s the question asked inside their facility, as general manager Brett Veach explained this week: “(Left tackle) is something you’re always thinking about. It’s always a priority,” he said. “But I think when you go into the offseason, you have to be disciplined.

Offensive line is a priority. Defensive line is a priority. But if you allocate either draft picks or funds just to the priority and not to the player, I think that’s when you get into trouble.” Kansas City Chiefs tackle Wanya Morris (No. 64) blocks a Denver Broncos defender on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

Chris Ochsner [email protected] This is a perfect explanation for one position, but it’s also applicable as one of the reasons why the Chiefs are where they find themselves now: perennial Super Bowl contenders during an era in which paying a quarterback has historically hamstrung his peers.

The Chiefs haven’t batted 1.000 in free agency or the draft. Heck, absent Taylor’s contract, they might’ve had a little more of those funds left over for a left tackle. But that operates under the assumption of availability. Just look at this past offseason. The top two tackles on most experts’ boards were in their 30s and they each signed one-year contracts — 33-year-old Tyron Smith with the Jets and 31-year-old Trent Brown with the Bengals.

The solution to the Chiefs’ left tackle carousel is almost certainly going to have to come through the draft, and this is a franchise that’s typically picking late in the first round. They appear to have whiffed on Suamataia being the answer, and that’s on them, but keep in mind that he was the 12th — yes, 12th — left tackle selected in last year’s draft. There are only 32 starting left tackles in the entire NFL, yet 13 teams (including the Chiefs) used a first- or second-round pick on one. Seven rookies were off the board by the time the Chiefs moved up to select Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy at No. 28. They had internal talks about moving up further for a tackle, but it was expensive enough to climb to 28th.

The odds suggest Suamataia should be much more productive than he has been, but they do not suggest that you can find a top-of-market starter in the draft position from which the Chiefs will almost certainly be picking, yet again, next spring. It’s going to require something of a steal, in other words, to rip off the yearly Band-Aid in favor of permanent resolution at left tackle.

WHAT IS THE CHIEFS’ SOLUTION AT LEFT TACKLE?

The questions could be here awhile. But there’s also some good news tucked into this topic: The answer’s here, too. It’s not a 350-pound lineman. It’s the 222-pound quarterback. In every year of his career, Mahomes has ranked as one of the three best quarterbacks in terms of sack avoidance — his ability to prevent pressure from turning into a sack. That’s changed this year, which is why he remarked after last week’s game against Denver that he can find better ways to get rid of the football. He has a long track record of doing so.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) runs the ball in the first half against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Emily Curiel [email protected] Mahomes is on pace to be pressured 177 times this year, per data available through PFF.

A whopping 34% of those pressures can be blamed on the Chiefs’ left tackles, the highest of any quarterback in the league. It’s a lot. But the total — that 177 pace — would actually be fewer pressures than Mahomes has faced in any season since 2019. In other words, he’s overcome worse statistically to win back-to-back Super Bowls, and that’s when he goes from elite to otherworldly. In the Chiefs’ last two postseason runs, only 8.1% (2023) and 6.7% (2022) of the opposition’s pressures turned into sacks. Those are ridiculously low numbers. That’s not shared to downplay the issue — the Chiefs’ left tackle struggles have undoubtedly had a real effect on the KC offense. It’s shared to underscore the Chiefs’ ability to respond to the problem this season, even if the response is going to have to be a familiar one.