Jets are giving Laurent Duvernay-Tardif his first start in 2021 in Week 11

Even though he’s not with the Kansas City Chiefs, we’re always interested in how our friend Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is doing these days. As one of the most compelling stories and persons in the National Football League, it’s impossible not to root for him. Thus, we were heartened to find out that Duvernay-Tardif was going to be tasked with his first start of the season on Sunday for the New York Jets.

According to NFL reporter Connor Hughes, who covers New York for The Athletic, the Jets are making some changes up front which means Greg Van Roten will step aside from his typical right guard spot to make way for Duvernay-Tardif.

The Chiefs traded Duvernay-Tardif to the Jets in one of their two trades before the NFL’s deadline in early November for tight end Daniel Brown. The move also cleared a bit of salary cap space for the Chiefs and gave LDT a chance to earn more playing time.

Laurent Duvernay-Tardif will make his first start of the season for the Jets.

Duvernay-Tardif was sitting among the team’s inactive players as a healthy scratch most weeks in Kansas City given that he’d lost his starting spot to rookie guard Trey Smith, a sixth-round pick out of Tennessee. Smith was a highly-regarded prospect who fell due to medical concerns in the draft, and the Chiefs have reaped the rewards of a risk taken.

The presence of Mike Remmers, Kyle Long, Austin Blythe, and Andrew Wylie also made Duvernay-Tardif expendable in the end given the overall depth and talent on the roster following general manager Brett Veach’s offseason rebuild of the line.