Are the Kansas City Chiefs looking for a new starting center?

A small anecdote in the latest MMQB column from Peter King reveals that the Kansas City Chiefs went calling about a potential new starting center.

I was four lines into the latest column from Monday Morning Quarterback’s Peter King when I had to go back and re-read the sentence.

“Kansas City calls. Jensen.”

It took me a minute to process. I’m pretty sure I said, “What?” out loud to no one in particular. I also went back to read again what I thought was a likely mistake or maybe just a rumor. Nope.

For his latest column (always a must read), King details the inner workings of the first few hours of free agency from inside the Chicago-based office of NFL agent Mike McCartney. The calls from various franchise are documented one after the other in tandem with the specific player they are calling about.

This is, primarily, a column about Kirk Cousins and the chase to grab the player perceived as the best one available at the game’s most important position. But the subplot here, for our purposes, is just as important.

Why were the Kansas City Chiefs calling the agent for free agent center Ryan Jensen?

More from Arrowhead Addict

There’s nothing wrong with a general manager and his staff calling to check out the status and prices of players of all stripes, even at positions that aren’t termed a “need.” You never know when a position can be upgraded, I suppose, and knowing how the market is playing out could be important for every position. But something about this struck me as a bit more than just fact-finding.

The way the calls were documented in the column show that one of the very first phone calls made to this agent came from the Chiefs about Ryan Jensen. That means that once the legal tampering period opened, one of the very first phone calls coming out of Arrowhead was seeing about the availability of a center.

A quick aside in case you don’t know Jensen. It took 48 hours after free agency opened, but Jensen is now the highest-paid center in the NFL thanks to an overpay from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team who needed serious help inside. Jensen received $22 million guaranteed over the course of a four-year deal, worth up to $42 million. No, Jensen was not a Pro Bowler last year. Yes, last year was his first as a starter (for the Baltimore Ravens). Draw your own conclusions.

Back to the Chiefs. If the Chiefs have any lingering holes on offense, the biggest comes at either back-up quarterback (yes, even after signing Chad Henne) or left guard. Parker Ehinger never had a chance to show how he looked post-ACL tear/comeback. Bryan Witzmann just got his first shot at serious playing time last year. Maybe the answer is in house. Maybe not. But it is the biggest question mark, not only along the line but on offense overall.

But, center? Really? The Chiefs are much less stable at center now that Zach Fulton is gone, but Mitch Morse has been the starter all along. Fulton provided a nice, versatile fallback, but the Chiefs had to know that Ryan Jensen wasn’t going to come in and be a back-up. So were they looking for Mitch Morse to move (aside, out, over)?

Morse has been on the verge of making the leap to the NFL’s top centers for a couple seasons now. Last year he was dominant before concussions took over, and he’s played at that level before. Morse is coming into his final season of his rookie deal and is scheduled to an unrestricted free agent this time next year. Morse should command much more than Jensen at this point, as an above average option who is still very young with a much longer track record than Jensen. Was Brett Veach and his staff just doing their homework?

It’s hard to imagine that the Chiefs were really going to bring in a new starting center via free agency when, one, they already have one and, two, they hardly have money to burn at that particular position. So what else explains this?

If we’re looking for a plausible explanation, it might help to note that Ryan Jensen played both left and right guard (even starting a few games) for the Baltimore Ravens in years past. Were the Chiefs interested at the right price in bringing him in and switching him back? That certainly makes a lot more sense.

Then again, Veach had to know Jensen would bring in plenty of money as a center. Is Jensen a great option at guard over what he already has in house? Remember, Jensen has only a handful of starts at the position, less than both Ehinger and Witzmann. Yet one of the first free agent calls by the Chiefs was for this emerging center who was soon to be massively overpaid?

Next: Why the Chiefs NEED a run-stuffer

I have to admit that nothing makes complete sense, even if I can understand partial sides of all of it.

Home/Kansas City Chiefs News