The countdown to Kansas City Chiefs training camp is officially on. The long wait since the 2026 NFL Draft is almost over. As the NFL media machine ramps into full preseason hype and prediction mode, a debate has recently broken out over the Chiefs' potential next season (not everyone is a believer). One of the doubts raised by some about the 2026 Chiefs is their offensive line.
The doubters say they question the Chiefs bringing back basically the same offensive line as last season. The other side argues that the Chiefs have an incredibly talented interior offensive line, a talented young left tackle, will be able to field a competent right tackle, and that their problems last year were injury-related, not talent-related.
The national media doubting the Chiefs' offensive line is dismissing die-hard Chiefs fans as "homers" who are overconfident. Meanwhile, many Chiefs fans are dismissing all offensive line doubts from the national media as out-of-touch takes by people who don't watch the team or know the roster well enough.
If someone were trying to be completely objective, it might be fair to say that the truth is somewhere in the middle. It is fair to say that the Chiefs have a very good interior offensive line, but it is also fair to say that Kansas City's offensive tackles are far from proven commodities. The potential is there for the tackle play this season to be anywhere from very good to a serious problem. Basically, the offensive tackles will likely prove one side of the recent offensive line debate correct with their play—but which side?
Josh Simmons has upside, but isn't a proven commodity yet
At left tackle, former first-round pick Josh Simmons looked like he had incredible potential in his rookie season but was only able to play eight games. After ending his college career with a patellar tendon injury, he missed multiple games in his rookie year because of both a personal issue that took him away from the team for multiple weeks and a fractured wrist that ended his season.
It is possible that the personal issue was a one-time thing and the wrist injury was a fluke that means nothing about his long-term injury history or reliability. Absolutely. Simmons may never miss time for personal reasons again, and the fact that his last two football seasons were cut short by injuries may not matter at all when it comes to his long-term health. He could continue to build off the potential he showed as a rookie, and this season he could start all 17 games and look like a future All-Pro.
That having been said, Simmons wouldn't be the first talented player whose career went off the rails because personal issues and/or injury problems kept him from living up to his potential. Do the national media have any real evidence or justification for believing these things will for sure continue to be a problem? No, but in fairness, Chiefs fans have no justification or proof for believing that Simmons won't have more issues. Simply put, Simmons needs to prove he's reliable on and off the field this season. If he does, that will be a huge boost to Kansas City's overall offensive line reliability.
Right tackle is an even bigger question mark
On the opposite side of the offensive line, the Chiefs appear to have a battle for the starting right tackle spot between former free-agent signing Jaylon Moore and former undrafted free agent Esa Pole. The Chiefs (and most of their fans) seem confident that the winner of this battle will be a perfectly fine offensive tackle. That could certainly be the case, but their performances last season were below average by most metrics.
In pass protection, Jaylon Moore graded out as one of the worst tackles in the league last season. Out of 84 qualifying tackles, he ranked 66th in pass protection grade by Pro Football Focus. He gave up 27 pressures on 257 pass-blocking snaps. For comparison, Jawaan Taylor gave up 20 pressures on 517 pass-blocking snaps last year. So despite his penalty issues and lackluster run blocking, Taylor was significantly better in pass protection.
Here are the pass-blocking reps per pressure allowed for Kansas City's top four tackles last season.
- Jawaan Taylor: 1 pressure every 25.85 pass block snaps
- Josh Simmons: 1 pressure every 20.39 pass block snaps
- Esa Pole: 1 pressure every 12.4 pass block snaps
- Jaylon Moore: 1 pressure every 9.52 pass block snaps
The Chiefs have typically run a lot of deep pass sets that can be hard for more physical tackles to survive against outside speed without help. While Moore was the highest-graded run-blocking offensive tackle for Kansas City last season, you can see that he did struggle with being left alone on an island in pass protection.
Could Moore be better this season? Sure. Could Esa Pole (a player fans may be overlooking) continue to develop and improve and beat Moore out? Absolutely. Could the Chiefs increase the use of their running game to keep edge defenders more honest and allow whoever wins the right tackle job a little more time to adjust? Definitely. However, Chiefs fans have to be honest that there is a very reasonable question about how good the pass protection will be at right tackle this season.
While it may be unfair to just assume that the Chiefs' offensive tackle production will be the same as last season because they didn't make any roster additions this offseason, it is also unfair to just assume that the best-case scenario will play out perfectly for the Chiefs. The offensive tackles have a lot to prove this season. Until we see how they respond, we won't truly know who the winner of the Chiefs' offseason offensive line debate is.
Add us as a preferred source on Google