Laurent Duvernay-Tardif Is Already “Wearing The Coaches Out”

There is a real shot the Chiefs have found an entire right side of their future offensive line in the sixth round of the draft. Mostly unknown Canadian tackle prospect Laurent (Larry) Duvernay-Tardif is already turning heads in Chiefs camp with his desire to learn and get better as a football player.

From Sports Illustrated’s Greg Bedard:

"“He’s an extremely gifted athlete,” Dorsey said. “You watch him on film and you see his athleticism, his toughness. He’s going to need a little work as far as a technical understanding of the pro game, but that won’t be for lack of effort. That guy is wearing the coaches out already… he wants to know everything and why.”"

LDT’s physical abilities do not seem to be in much question as much as it is his technique. Not surprisingly college football in Canada is played much different than in the NFL, so it would make a lot of sense for there to be a lot of technical adjustments. Based on Dorsey’s comments it would appear LDT plans on making that transition as quick as possible.

Lost in the talk about De’Anthony Thomas, Aaron Murray, and Dee Ford is the Chiefs may have found 40% of their future offensive line in one round. Zach Fulton has a serious chance of starting at right guard this season and LDT may be the starting right tackle as soon as next season. Should the Chiefs be able to retain Rodney Hudson and if Jeff Allen can take a step forward after working with LeCharles Bentley then Kansas City should have an excellent offensive line moving forward.

Hitting on some of these late round picks is incredibly important for the Chiefs if they want to build themselves into a Super Bowl caliber team. Guys like Richard Sherman and Tom Brady get a lot of attention because of their “third day” draft status and then turning into superstars. A superstar would obviously be great, but the Chiefs need some of these guys like Tardif and Fulton to come through and be quality starters. If you’re stealing quality starters on the third day of the draft then you’re opening up cap room to both retain the core of your team and add some of the pieces to supplement the roster.

Worst case scenario is the Chiefs ended up with a team doctor with the sixth round pick. Seems like a win-win to me.