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The Kansas City Chiefs may have come short in winning another Super Bowl, but a silver lining is that the team has mostly stayed intact. Cutting veteran tackles Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz was a surprising move, but understandable given their injuries. Had these two been fully healthy for the Super Bowl, then the score would have been different.
Kansas City re-signed tackle Mike Remmers to have a sense of continuity along the offensive line. Remmers for most of his career has been about average, which is fine for a team with so much talent, although he would be exposed against the league's better pass rushers.
The good thing for quarterback Patrick Mahomes is that the interior of the offensive line received a big upgrade with the addition of guard Joe Thuney from the New England Patriots. Thuney is an iron man and has never missed a game in his NFL career and there is no reason why that should change. The front office made an interesting decision when they signed former All-Pro guard Kyle Long, who was previously retired.
Joe Thuney leads the way for the BIG Sony Michel run 😤pic.twitter.com/VsmtUYPPXb
— PFF (@PFF) December 29, 2020
Despite these moves, the team still has a glaring hole at left tackle. This is the team's biggest need by far. There are still quality options in the free agency market like Alejandro Villanueva or even Rick Wagner. Both are seasoned players, who could dependably protect Mahomes' blind side. The fact that the Chiefs have not yet added a left tackle means they will in all likelihood address this issue in the draft.
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The best-case scenario for Kansas City in their quest is to have a situation similar to Tampa Bay last year, where they managed to snag the best tackle in the class in Tristan Wirfs. Granted the Bucs had pick 13 and the Chiefs will be selecting in the tail end of the first round.
Unlike running back, which is a plug-and-play position most of the time, offensive tackles usually take time to get acclimated to the professional game. This can be attributed to the schemes those players had in college or simply having to deal with faster and stronger defenders. There are those who are ready to start on day one and make an impact, but they are few and far in between.
Fortunately, for Kansas City, this year's draft class has good depth to it. Since they will be picking 31st overall, the team will adopt the best tackle available strategy. The team can choose Samuel Cosmi from Texas. He has an impressive 6'7, 309-pound frame with good length. Cosmi was a starter for three seasons and is one of the better athletes at the position.
His pass protection technique is refined and did a solid job mirroring opposing defenders. Despite his size, he still needs to get stronger to compete at the next level. Cosmi's run blocking is not at par with his work in the passing game, but this should not be an issue as Kansas City is definitely a pass-first team. Hopefully, Cosmi can be the Chiefs' Wirfs in terms of early success.
