The competition at left guard for the Kansas City Chiefs has been unsettled year after year, and the 2018 season yields a surprise competitor among the lot.
Eric Fisher has been entrenched at left tackle since he was announced as the first overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. Mitchell Schwartz hasn’t missed a single snap since he was taken one year earlier than Fisher, and he simply switched uniforms while keeping his streak intact when he joined the Kansas City Chiefs in 2016.
Even along the interior, the Chiefs have enjoyed some decent consistency among a young core that looks to largely grow together. Mitch Morse was a second round choice in 2015 who stepped right into Rodney Hudson’s Pro Bowl-sized shoes and did a solid job from the outset. At right guard, a brilliant project went exactly as hoped as Laurent Duvernay-Tardif took over when Morse did and even signed a lucrative extension.
The bigger picture has young good-to-great performers locked into their respective roles along the Chiefs offensive line, but there’s one piece of the puzzle at left guard that has yet to work itself out. Year after year brings further questions wondering if last year’s starter will be given a second year or whether someone else lurking on the roster, old or new, will supplant the former.
For a line that’s so solid in other places, left guard is a surprising carousel. It’s not for lack of trying at times. Then again, it’s also for lack of trying.
Let’s dig in with a closer look at the position and the candidates including a total surprise who is apparently standing out this spring.