Fixing The Kansas City Chiefs Offensive Line
Dec 21, 2014; Tampa, FL, USA; Green Bay Packers tackle Bryan Bulaga (75) blocks against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the first quarter at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
2. Sign The Best Offensive Lineman Available In Free Agency
Many Chiefs fans are looking at the list of possible free agent wide receivers and dreaming of seeing them in a Kansas City uniform next season. However, once again, I think this would be a mistake. First off, most of the big names on the WR free agent list aren’t going to hit the open market. That means that the few that do will be in high demand. I can tell you how that’s going to work out. The teams that get those few in demand WRs are either going to pay out the nose for them OR they might sign one for a reasonable deal if they have an elite QB that the WR wants to play with.
I think it would be a mistake to pay a WR a huge contract. With the Chiefs set to give Justin Houston a lot of money a second huge contract to a WR would strap the Chiefs and make it hard to make many other moves this offseason. Plus, let’s be honest here. No WR is going to come to KC unless they outbid every other team when they are coming off a season where they didn’t throw a single TD pass to a WR. There’s a reason Emmanual Sanders bailed on KC to go to Denver, he wanted to play with Peyton Manning more than he wanted to play with Alex Smith. A team built around Jamaal Charles with Alex Smith at QB isn’t drawing star WRs without overpaying and overpaying a WR would be a mistake.
Which brings us to the offensive line.
Unfortunately there is not a lot of quality OL free agents set to hit the open market. In fact, in a recent piece over at Bleacher Report that graded the quality of free agents at each position they gave the OL free agent class a D+. If that isn’t bad enough, they listed 18 “notable” OL free agents and Jeff Linkenbach made the list (let that sink in for a moment). So if KC is going to sign a quality starter for the OL they will probably have to pay for him. However, I would still expect the price tag for these OL to be below that of the top WRs.
Probably the three biggest names that could hit the market are tackles Bryan Bulaga and Doug Free and guard Mike Iupati. Both of the tackles are RTs and Iupati has played LG so any of them would fit a need for KC. Bulaga is just 25, Free is 30 and while he’s been very good for Dallas he is currently battling injuries, and Iupati is 27. Any of these three would be a huge get for KC and add some stability to the OL. Bulaga would be my top target and his connection with John Dorsey might make this more realistic, however, if Green Bay decides to let Randall Cobb walk they might use the money saved to keep Bulaga. Other possibilities that would be upgrades for KC would be Denver’s Orlando Franklin or San Diego’s King Dunlap.
Regardless, the Chiefs need to spend some money on the offensive line to ensure they get the improvement they so desperately need.
The final step is on the next page.