The Kansas City Chiefs entered this year’s offseason knowing that they had to do something about their offensive line. They traded Joe Thuney to the Bears, further increasing the urgency to revamp the unit. Soon after, the team signed Jaylon Moore to a two-year deal with the plan to make him their new left tackle for the 2025 season.
The Chiefs were smart to bring Moore in because, let’s face it, finding a franchise left tackle late in the first round of the draft isn’t realistic. The Chiefs held the 31st pick and figured there wouldn’t be an offensive tackle that could come in and start for them right away. Well, in an ironic twist of fate, the Chiefs ended up landing Ohio State offensive tackle Josh Simmons with their late first-round pick and the move is already looking to be a brilliant one.
Simmons has been taking the majority of the first-team reps at training camp, which is a good sign for how the team views him. Initially when training camp first opened up, it was Simmons at left tackle and Moore at right tackle, as Jawaan Taylor began camp on the PUP list.
Fans started to get excited at the possibility of this being the full-time look on the o-line but now that Taylor is back, that dream might have already been dashed. According to Nate Taylor, the Chiefs’ starting offensive line in the first padded practice consisted of Simmons at left tackle and Taylor at right tackle.
Chiefs OL experiences shakeup with Jawaan Taylor’s return
While Chiefs fans might have wanted Moore to be the starting right tackle moving forward, it’s not the least bit surprising to see Taylor get his starting job back upon his return from the PUP list. Sure, Taylor hasn’t been worth the contract he signed two years ago (mostly thanks to the abundance of penalties he racks up) but he also hasn’t been awful enough to be demoted, especially over the summer.
Simmons’ performance this summer paired with Taylor’s contract means that, whether Chiefs fans like it or not, Moore will likely be the odd man out when the regular season begins. When K.C. signed him, he was going to be a starter but no one could have predicted that the draft board would have fallen the way it did, which led to the Chiefs getting Simmons in what already looks to be a steal of a pick.
Even with Simmons being the pick, there were still questions about whether he’d be healthy enough to play by the time the regular season rolled around. Now that we have the answer to that, it feels pretty clear that Simmons is the guy at left tackle and Taylor will be manning right tackle.
What does that mean for Moore? Well, he’s going to be doing something he was used to during his 49er days, which is riding the bench until he’s called upon. He’ll be a valuable depth piece for this team, especially as the Chiefs hope to put together another Super Bowl run. He did great whenever the 49ers needed him to step into the starting lineup so if that ends up being his role in Kansas City, he should be able to handle it with ease.
