Eric Fisher appreciation should only grow after Chiefs 2020 season

Eric Fisher deserves even more appreciation after the 2020 Chiefs season.

Last year at this time, we realized just how much Eric Fisher meant to this team. In 2020, that appreciation has only grown but for completely different reasons.

Last season, the Kansas City Chiefs had an impossible time filling Fisher’s shoes on the left hand side of the offensive line. Early in the first quarter in the second week of the season, Fisher went down with an injury that would result in core muscle surgery. The groin injury would result in Fisher missing the majority of Week 2 but every single game from Week 3 to Week 10. The Chiefs left tackle wouldn’t return for good until Week 11 against the L.A. Chargers.

During that two month stretch of time, the Chiefs had a 4-4 record without Fisher. With Fisher, the Chiefs were 8-0. It didn’t help to lose Patrick Mahomes for a couple games there in the middle and Tyreek Hill was also out for much of that same period, but Fisher’s absence was glaring along the offensive front.

Cameron Erving stepped in on the left side as the team’s swing tackle and filled in for the next eight games. The results were quite unpredictable, ranging from embarrassing to average.

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Upon Fisher’s return, it wasn’t hard to find sentiments of relief expressed throughout Chiefs Kingdom. If fans didn’t appreciate the solid effort turned in by Fisher year after year on the left side for the Chiefs before 2019, they certainly did once they lost him. The absence of the former No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 draft made fans realize what exactly he brings to the table—and just how hard it is to replace it.

Enter 2020 and we’re appreciating Fisher for all kinds of different reasons. Without the COVID-19 pandemic or any injuries, the Chiefs would likely have a front line of Fisher, Andrew Wylie/Mike Remmers, Austin Reiter, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Mitchell Schwartz with Lucas Niang as the swing tackle. However, the given reality is that almost all of those players have missed significant time, if not the entire season.

At right tackle, the Chiefs have shifted Remmers to cover for Schwartz’s back pain. At left guard, the Chiefs signed and then lost Kelechi Osemele to injury, after which they turned to Nick Allegretti. At right guard, they subbed in Wylie for Duvernay-Tardif. At center, they’ve rotated Reiter and Daniel Kilgore. Even Yasir Durant got some reps at right tackle for a spell when Remmers was injured, and could play again this weekend.

All the while, Fisher has remained a cornerstone on the left hand side of the line for the Chiefs. For all the concerns of the front office and coaching staff about the patchwork job up front, Fisher is the single element about which they do not have to worry.

Before the injury in 2019, Fisher had not only played in every single game since Week 13 of the 2013 season—his rookie year—but he’d also made his first ever Pro Bowl in 2018. That’s 87 straight starts between injuries and a growth curve that brought him recognition among the NFL’s finest. Once again, he’s enjoying a very fine season and it’s quite possible that he earns a second Pro Bowl nod in 2020 as well.

For the Chiefs, the appreciation for Fisher has grown either way after learning just how hard it is to replace him in 2019 and to recognize his dependability in 2020.