Kansas City\u2019s head coach needs to see how his new tackle is feeling during this week\u2019s practices.<\/p>\n
Halfway through the fourth quarter of Friday\u2019s 19-17 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, the Kansas City Chiefs did the same thing they had done with rookie left tackle Kingsley Suamataia late in the Week 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals: they put their starting left tackle on the bench.<\/p>\n
In Week 2, second-year tackle Wanya Morris came in for the Suamataia \u2014 but when Morris went to the bench on Friday, veteran left guard Joe Thuney slid to the outside; reserve guard Mike Caliendo came in to take Thuney\u2019s spot.<\/p>\n
But head coach Andy Reid remains convinced that while Suamatia and Morris have not been the players they expected for this season, they still have the potential to help the team in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got young guys that were working in there,\u201d he told reporters on Monday. \u201cThey\u2019re going against good players. The good ones have gotten \u2014 probably \u2014 the better of us. But [those are] things that these guys will learn from. They can bank [those] for the future and get themselves better. I think that\u2019ll help us down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reid said that for Morris, it has been a familiar story.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes things snowball on you,\u201d he remarked. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s a little bit of everything [that] gets you. He started off pretty good \u2014 and then it kind of went from there. That happens with young guys. Nobody wants that to happen that way, but sometimes it happens \u2014 and then you kind of get frozen in your own feet on what to do exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chiefs have already made a move to shore up the position: signing the Arizona Cardinals\u2019 former left tackle D.J. Humphries. The 30-year-old Humphries \u2014 a first-round draft pick in 2015 \u2014 became a salary-cap casualty for 2024 after he suffered an ACL injury in last season\u2019s Week 17 game. Reid hasn\u2019t decided if Humphries will step in as the starter for the team\u2019s important matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s probably fair to D.J. right now \u2014 just him coming off this offseason,\u201d said Reid. \u201cSo I think we just play it by ear as we go. If he feels OK, then we give him an opportunity. If [he\u2019s] not where [he] needs to be, then [we] don\u2019t. So we\u2019ll just see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Humphries isn\u2019t ready to play on Sunday, Reid is willing to have Thuney serve as quarterback Patrick Mahomes\u2019 blind-side protector. But that wouldn\u2019t be his first choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s another one of the options that we\u2019ve got; we finished [Friday\u2019s] game that way,\u201d acknowledged the head coach. \u201c[But] I\u2019d rather have Joe playing [at] guard because he\u2019s very good there \u2014 [and] Caliendo isn\u2019t bad, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s a good problem to have: we\u2019ve got some flexibility there, as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kansas City\u2019s head coach needs to see how his new tackle is feeling during this week\u2019s practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"yoast_head":"\n