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Kansas City Chiefs: Top ten training camp battles to watch

By Lyle Graversen

SAINT JOSEPH, MO - JULY 31: The team runs drills during Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp on July 31, 2011 in Saint Joseph, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
SAINT JOSEPH, MO - JULY 31: The team runs drills during Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp on July 31, 2011 in Saint Joseph, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /
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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – NOVEMBER 19: Cameron Erving
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – NOVEMBER 19: Cameron Erving /

9. Offensive Line (second string)

It appears that, barring any setbacks, the starting offensive line for the Chiefs in 2019 is going to be (from left to right) Eric Fisher, Andrew Wylie, Austin Reiter, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, and Mitchell Schwartz. However, teams rarely have the privilege of starting the same five guys all season long, so having reliable guys on the bench to fill in when needed is crucial to a team’s success. In fact, Wylie and Reiter are likely starters this season because of how they played when guys that were ahead of them went down last season.

The Chiefs currently have ten guys on the roster competing for the reserve spots on the 53 man roster. Those ten are (alphabetically): Nick Allegretti, Abdul Beecham, Dino Boyd, Cam Erving, Zack Golditch, Ryan Hunter, Kahlil McKenzie, Pace Murphy, Jimmy Murray, and Chidi Okeke.

In my opinion there are four clear front runners in that group, the first being Cam Erving who has starting experience (although not always good experience) and can play most of the positions on the line if needed.

Kahlil McKenzie will definitely be on my watch list for this season as the former draft pick has now been at his new position for a full year (after K.C. moved him from the defensive line in college). They clearly saw the raw tools in him and it will be interesting to see what a year of NFL coaching has done for him.

This year’s only offensive line draft pick, Nick Allegretti, will likely make the roster but it will be interesting to see how he competes as a rookie. Finally, Ryan Hunter is now in his second year with the Chiefs and looked promising at times last camp (even getting a few snaps with the first string at times).

The Chiefs are starting to develop a nice reputation for developing offensive line talent. Their entire starting interior line this year is made up of project guys that were either late round draft picks (LDT), undrafted players (Wylie), or cast offs from other teams (Reiter). It will be interesting to see which of these guys are the next to join that list. My guess is the Chiefs will likely have to rely on one or two of them to fill in at some point this season so the winners of these roster battles will likely have an impact on this team at some point.

Now on to the No. 8 battle.

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