When you win three Super Bowls in five years, as the Kanas City Chiefs have, it's safe to say you will remain a championship favorite no matter how the offseason shakes out. Sure, players come and go, but as long as the core players and coaches who helped to set that foundation are in place, expectations will remain through the moon as a result.
Fortunately, the Chiefs didn't just rest on their laurels and instead added some very interesting players in the draft and free agency who should help their cause heading into the future, including another high-profile offensive lineman and a speedster with near-limitless potential.
These rookies could be players for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2024.
2. Kingsley Suamataia will push Wanya Morris for left tackle
In 2023, the Chiefs secured the services of Donovan Smith to fill their vacancy at left tackle, and while he wasn't perfect, the Penn State product who called Tampa Bay home as a second-round pick did a good enough job to help the team with the Super Bowl, even if he was far from the second-coming of Jason Peters at the position.
While the team opted to go with 2023 third-round pick Wanya Morris as their left tackle heading into the spring, even though Smith is still on the open market, they hedged their bet by drafting Kingsley Suamataia in the second round, adding competition at one of the most important positions in football.
Standing 6-foot-4, 326 pounds, with good length and plus athleticism for the position, there's a lot to like about Suamataia as a prospect, and the Chiefs' head coach sees that too, noting in an interview with reporters that he enjoys what both tackles have brought to the table during the early rounds of their competition.
“They’ve both done a nice job. [I] like the production we’ve seen from both of them,” Andy Reid told reporters via Chiefs Wire. “Both of them are young guys. So, we’ll just see how it all finishes up through camp. It’s good competition. We’re going to end up playing the five best guys, and we’ll go from there. We’ll just see how it all plays out.”
Could Suamataia win the starting left tackle spot for Week 1? Sure. Could he end up coming off the bench initially and win the spot as the season goes along, be that via injury or poor play from Morris? Sure. Hecky, Smith may even resign from the team and start on the left side once more, giving both Morris and Suamataia a chance to develop further. Ultimately, the Chiefs add another player at a position of value, and in the end, that's all that really matters.
1. Xavier Worthy will push Marquise Brown for WR1
In Philadelphia, Andy Reid put together some of the best offenses in the league at the time with the speedy DeSean Jackson playing WR1 for the Eagles.
Standing 5-foot-10, 175 pounds with a 4.35 40 time, Jackson wasn't the biggest wide receiver around and didn't exactly run a full route tree to help work his way open as a technical specialist, but what he lacked in polish, he more than made up for with otherworldly speed, with the Cal product leading Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick to some of their greatest seasons as a pro.
In Xavier Worthy, the Chiefs have found a player who is bigger and faster than D-Jax, and while only time will tell if he has a similar X factor to the Eagles legend, it's safe to say Kanas City will look to him early and often to make plays down the field, even after signing Hollywood Brown in free agency to help fill a similar role.
Discussing what Worthy needs to do to get on the field and, thus, make an impact for the Chiefs this fall, Reid explained that it all comes down to timing and knows that once he gets on the same page as Mahomes, he should be able to contribute alongside the team's pre-existing playmakers.
“Really, it's getting that timing down with the new people. And then, ‘What do the new people do well?' So, let's see what they can do. Now, with Xavier, we weren't able to do a whole lot of that because of the injury,” Andy Reid told reporters via ESPN. “But, you bring Mecole [Hardman] back in and then you've got Hollywood [Brown], you've got two fast guys, so you can kind of work some things in there and see what they look like. We kinda know the game between 4 [Rashee Rice] and 87 [Travis Kelce] and how they work off of each other, but we were able to expand that, too and give them a little bit more to work on. I would tell you just, how the pieces are gonna fit is what we spend most of the time on.”
While Worthy is most well known for his speed, he isn't just a one-hit wonder who can only get things done on go and post routes, but instead a deceptively good mover and shaker in the open field, using his change of pace skills and unique burst to make plays as a member of the Texas Longhorns. If Worthy can translate his college game to the pros, who knows, maybe he could establish himself as WR1 for the Chiefs by the end of his rookie season and challenge Kelce for the most receiving yards of any player on the team when all is said and done.
Follow Us
Subscribe
