Kansas City Chiefs offseason losers include Damien Williams
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Andrew Wylie, or Austin Reiter
Wow, this was a tough one. As it stands now, I truly don’t know who is in the most trouble but my best guess would be at least one of these guys isn’t on the roster by week 1.
With the addition of Darryl Williams, Lucas Niang, Mike Remmers, Yasir Durant, and a healthy Martinas Rankin, there will be a lot of competition at the guard spots as well as center and swing tackle.
The original case for LDT being out would be the large contract but he ended up getting it re-worked. He his also 29 and it seems like he is on the decline after his career-worst performance last season. If the Chiefs wanted to keep the younger guys then the logical odd man out is him. He also may have some higher trade value being a veteran on a Super Bowl winning team which could make the decision easier on Kansas City.
From all accounts Williams is turning some heads and seems like he has a very good shot at making the roster. Where does that leave Austin Reiter? Reiter filled in admirably for Mitch Morse in 2018 and he even get a deal to come back and start last season. While Reiter wasn’t bad, he struggled to get push in the run game and, with the drafting of Nick Allegretti a year ago, Reiter seemed like more of a stop-gap and not the center of the future. If I were to bet on who are the centers on the roster to start the season, I would say Williams and Allegretti. The key factor in Reiter making the team is the weirdness of this offseason where having cohesiveness is paramount when we aren’t sure how much will be changed because of the coronavirus.
Finally, Andrew Wylie. He was very solid at right guard the year before last, but a switch to the left side was a struggle last season. On paper, he is supposed to be a mauler and someone who can get some push in the run game but we didn’t see much of that last season. After getting injured and then replaced by Stefen Wisniewski, the offensive line seemed to take a step forward.
While Wylie has shown some promise and he’s only 25, the Chiefs have to have liked what they saw in Martinas Rankin. Rankin was the player traded for Carlos Hyde before the regular season started last year and looked extremely good before he came down with an injury of his own. With Rankin as someone who I believe will be a starter at guard this upcoming season, I think this pushes Wylie out of the starting rotation. Remmers and Niang will be fighting for the backup tackle spot, and both have a solid chance of making the team. I believe Niang will play some guard this season to get him some snaps, as I believe he will eventually be a Tackle of the future whenever Fisher or Schwartz are done.
Whichever way you look at it, the good news for Chiefs fans is there are a lot of above average options for protecting Patrick Mahomes.