Brett Veach's offensive tackle gamble could come back to haunt the Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs are a little over a week away from taking the field for their first game of the 2026 season. While hopes are high that K.C. can rebound from a down year in 2025, one position could potentially hold the entire team back. If the Chiefs can't protect Patrick Mahomes, it's hard to imagine them being successful this season. The really frustrating part is that the offensive tackle issues didn't come out of nowhere; they were plain to see last season, and yet general manager Brett Veach opted not to do anything about them.

We don't need to rehash how Veach (and most of Chiefs Kingdom) scoffed at the idea that KC might take an offensive tackle early in the 2026 draft. The main idea was that the Chiefs had invested enough in the line and could make do with Jaylon Moore and Esa Pole at right tackle. Unfortunately, there were two major problems with that logic.

The Chiefs Offensive Tackle Issues Were Obvious

The first problem is that neither Moore nor Pole was very good last season. They both gave up significantly more pressures per passing rep than the often-maligned Jawaan Taylor (more on him in a minute). So unless the Chiefs had a valid reason to believe that either player would be significantly better than he was last season, Veach was taking a major risk that right tackle could be an issue from day one this season.

The second problem is that the assumption that you could just pencil Josh Simmons in as the left tackle for 17 games isn't supported by his past two seasons. Simmons lost most of his final year in college to an injury, and then, in his rookie season, he missed time for both personal reasons and an injury. Now, with the season about to start, he's already nursing a back injury, and there are whispers that the team isn't happy with how he's handling things.

You can try to spin this as things just not working out how the Chiefs had hoped, but the bottom line is that the trio of Simmons, Moore, and Pole is exactly who it was last season. Yet the only addition Veach made to help shore up that group going into training camp was to throw another undrafted rookie at the position. Luckily, Kahlil Benson has been very good for an undrafted rookie, but he hasn't looked super reliable as a starter either (who could blame him?).

With the Chiefs' depth and starting-caliber tackles looking suspect, the team was forced to make a couple of trades as roster cutdowns loomed. They added Joshua Ezeudu from the Giants, who has played both guard and tackle, and Diego Pounds, an undrafted tackle formerly with the Ravens. While these two give them potentially better depth, it's still just throwing darts and hoping that somebody turns into a starting-level player to protect the franchise quarterback coming off major knee surgery.

It's fair to ask what moves Brett Veach could have made this offseason. His draft class certainly looks stellar overall, so it seems almost unfair to question his approach to it. If Mansoor Delane and Peter Woods turn into good players, it's hard to argue that Veach should have passed on one of them just to fill a need with a player he didn't like as much. That having been said, I think it is fair to ask if the Chiefs would have been better off drafting a cornerback and an offensive tackle as opposed to two cornerbacks.

The Los Angeles Chargers selected Travis Burke, a massive 6-foot-8, 325-pound tackle out of Memphis, just eight picks after KC drafted Jadon Canady. Burke spent most of the preseason mauling opposing defenders as he showed great promise playing at both left and right tackle for the Chargers. You can see Brian Baldinger gushing over his play in the post below.

There were also fairly cheap free-agent options that could have provided depth or flat-out started from day one as well. The Carolina Panthers somehow signed Rasheed Walker (who started most of the season for the Green Bay Packers last year) for just one year at $4 million. Walker is just 26 and has had a Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade of over 70 for all three years that he has played. Brett Veach couldn't have paid him $5 million to have a chance at a starting job protecting Patrick Mahomes?

While we're on the subject of cheap tackles who are better pass blockers than any of KC's current options at right tackle, let's circle back around to Jawaan Taylor. Obviously, he wasn't worth what the Chiefs paid him when they originally brought him to KC. His penalties were about as frustrating as those of any Chiefs player in the team's history. However, he gave up just 20 total pressures on 517 pass-blocking plays last season. Moore and Pole combined for 43 pressures allowed in just 443 pass-blocking snaps. Taylor signed a one-year deal for just $5 million this offseason.

Brett Veach absolutely deserves praise for being the GM of the Chiefs during their streak of seven straight AFC Championship Games, with five Super Bowl appearances and three Super Bowl wins. You can't go on a run like that if you aren't a good GM. I don't care how good your head coach and quarterback are. That doesn't mean he is above criticism, though.

The Chiefs want to get back to competing for more Super Bowls this season, but everyone who watches the NFL knows that Patrick Mahomes is the main ingredient in the recipe for a KC Super Bowl season. Mahomes needs solid protection to be successful, yet Veach saw how rough the tackle play was at times this past season and did nothing to upgrade it in the offseason. That's a big gamble, and during the preseason, it didn't look like it was paying off. The Chiefs simply can't afford to waste another year of Mahomes' prime. Here's to hoping the Chiefs' offensive tackles prove Veach made the right call when they take the field against a very tough Denver Broncos defense in Week 1; otherwise, his gamble could end up costing them the season.

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