What does the future look like for Mitch Morse and the Chiefs?

Mitch Morse is entering the last year of his contract with the Chiefs. If Morse plays well coming back from his injury what should the Chiefs do with him?

When Willie Roaf, Brian Waters, Casey Wiegmann, Will Shields, and John Tait played for the Kansas City Chiefs, it showed fans what a great offensive line looks like. With Trent Green slinging passes and Priest Holmes running behind them, the 2001-2003 seasons made Chiefs fans hopeful that they may finally reach the ever-elusive Super Bowl again. Unfortunately for all of us this never came to be. Instead we saw the team go through a slow decline over the next few seasons culminating in a 2-14 finish in 2008.

Fast forward to today, and we see the Chiefs attempting to assemble something very similar to what they had in the early 2000s. Instead of Trent Green we now have Patrick Mahomes, and Priest Holmes has been replaced by Kareem Hunt. The Chiefs have even made solid investments at every spot across the line—with the obvious exception of the left guard spot. One such investment was 2015 second round pick Mitch Morse.

Morse was drafted to replace former Chief and current Oakland Raiders center Rodney Hudson. He had some big shoes to fill, but he proved earl that the NFL was not too big for him. Morse became a day one starter for the Chiefs and impressed in his first game:

To do this well against Vince Wilfork for your first ever NFL game was remarkable to say the least. He continued to be a solid addition to the team only missing one game in the 2015 season. The one game he missed was due to a concussion while playing against the Buffalo Bills that season. Morse returned from the injury to then play in the next 24 games over the rest of the 2015 and the entirety of the 2016 seasons.

More from Arrowhead Addict

• Former Chiefs cornerback in legal trouble in Las Vegas
• Chiefs Kingdom: Get ready to break contract news
• Chiefs news: Travis Kelce wants to host fan ‘chug-off’ in Germany
• Podcast: Breaking down the Chiefs biggest roster battles
• KC Chiefs send Dave Merritt to NFL coaching accelerator

The 2017 season is where the injury bug really bit Morse. During the Chiefs Week 2 game against the Philadelphia Eagles, he sprained his foot. Morse missed the next five games before returning to play Week 8 of last season. He was not the same upon returning, and ended up re-injuring his foot in Week 14. After the second time, the Chiefs decided to shut him down for the season by placing him on injured reserve.

After being place on IR, Morse seems to have acquired the perception that he is often injured. Looking at these first few years of his career, I don’t know how we can put that label to Morse. He has had one significant injury in his short career. While that did wipe out the majority of his 2017 season, it does not take away from the fact that he had only missed one game over a two-year span previous to that.

With that addressed, the next question is what should Kansas City do with him from here? Morse is entering a contract year and, as of now, the Chiefs have no viable backup option on the roster. Unless Brett Veach is counting on Cameron Erving to develop further and take over the position. he could attempt to extend Morse early if the Missouri product would agree to it. If Veach could accomplish that, he would be able to keep his overall contract down while locking down the position for the next few years.

To put in perspective of how much Morse would cost look no further than former Chief Zach Fulton. The contract that Fulton signed with the Houston Texans this offseason has a total value of $28 million with a payout of $7M per year. Now whether or not the Chiefs will be willing to pay that much is up for debate. With the contracts of Reggie Ragland, Tyreek Hill, Kendall Fuller, and others ending at the end of 2019. Signing anyone before that may be risking cutting into those future contracts.

While being able to resign Morse to a team friendly deal would be ideal. Morse will most likely bet on himself and play out his contract. This means the Chiefs could be looking at a possible bidding war for his continued service. With Erving also hitting the open market at the end of this season, the Chiefs could have a big hole on their offensive line at the end of this season.

The Chiefs have invested quite a bit of money in the offensive line, and should continue to do so. Making sure Mahomes has a clean pocket has to continue to be a top priority for the Chiefs moving forward.