Kansas City Chiefs Shake Up Offensive Line

Day three of OTAs brought an interesting twist along the Kansas City Chiefs offensive line. According to Terez A. Paylor, rookie minicamp signee Ryan McKee took snaps at right tackle with the starters while Jeff Linkenbach jumped Rishaw Johnson and started at right guard.

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There are a few things to consider here as it relates to the context of the situation. Eric Fisher is being held out of a lot of the contact portion of practice in order to let him recover from the two offseason surgeries he had this winter. He’s participating in “group initial stuff” according to Andy Reid but they are protecting his shoulder when it comes to the more physical parts of practice.

Donald Stephenson has been playing left tackle while Fisher is out which means the right tackle spot is open. What we appear to be seeing is a group of players getting reps in at right tackle to help filter out the competition for who will be the backup tackle. Today was McKee’s turn, apparently. What it does say is the Chiefs think highly enough of McKee to spend snaps on him with the first team. He’ll be a guy to watch at camp as a possible sleeper to make the roster.

Linkenbach getting snaps at right guard shouldn’t be a surprise either. The competition for who will be the starting right guard would seem to be down to Johnson, Linkenbach, and Zach Fulton. Fulton is a rookie who has been with the team for less than a month so it would make sense for Reid to give the two veteran guys the first few shots at making their case to be the starting guard.

One thing appears to be certain: The Chiefs think they have some quality depth on the offensive line to sift through.