You could say that pressure begets pressure for the Kansas City Chiefs offseason.
In the aftermath of watching Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes run for his life against the Philadelphia Eagles in an embarrassingly lopsided effort in Super Bowl LIX, the team's front office felt the pressure ratchet up several notches to aid the offensive line. Specifically, a string of misses at left tackle had finally sprung a leak in the Chiefs' dam of sustained success and a clear answer was needed going forward.
Somehow the Chiefs have now increased the weight of that responsibility with the surprising trade of Joe Thuney to the Chicago Bears.
The Chiefs sent Thuney to the Windy City on Wednesday in exchange for a 2026 fourth-round draft choice. The move cleared some much needed cap space for K.C. even as they have to own the nearly $11 million in dead cap space. As it turns out, it was either going to be Trey Smith or Thuney and the Chiefs hitched their wagon to the younger option.
While the move makes somewhat sense on paper financially speaking, the deal is a head-scratcher when it comes to the massive void at left tackle. That's because the Chiefs already had depressing options in-house to remedy the problem and the open market looks nearly as thin. And now the pressure on whoever is tasked with protecting Mahomes' blindside is only going to feel a greater burden.
Joe Thuney's absence creates more uncertainty next to the black hole at left tackle for the Chiefs.
Joe Thuney's presence on the left side at least provided some level of comfort and compensation for whoever suited up at left tackle. Thuney was an All-Pro who might be the best interior pass protector in the game today. Even into his mid-thirties, Thuney was still playing at an elite level and his technique, leadership, and tremendous experience will be missed up front.
The Chiefs, per Ian Rapoport, are likely turning to Kingsley Suamataia in his stead. While Suamataia looked solid in a Week 18 showing in the role, the truth is that it's a roll of the dice for a team that was already grasping at straws at the left tackle spot. Now there are two question marks on the left side instead of one.
With Thuney, the Chiefs could frame someone's inexperience with excellence. Without Thuney, the Chiefs are, at this point, going all-in on hopeful candidates rather than sure things. That feels like quite the odd play for a team that's in the championship conversation every year.
It should be said that the offseason is long and analyzing roster construction in early March is a fool's errand to a degree. But it doesn't take a general manager to realize the free agent market is fraught with risky plays and the draft class is short on obvious franchise hits—and that doesn't even include the Chiefs' recently spotty history trying to identify prospects to fill the role.
Trusting Brett Veach is the only choice for Chiefs Kingdom in the wake of the Joe Thuney trade, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt given the team's dynastic run, but it doesn't make his path forward any easier to have won previous rings. The left tackle role was already a question without obvious answers and now the task to get it right is even more difficult with the loss of Thuney.
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