3 Chiefs winning their positional battles so far in training camp

Wanya Morris

To be clear, we're not exactly sure what battle Wanya Morris is winning, but we like his chances to claim it, whatever it is.

When the Chiefs selected Morris out of Oklahoma in the third round of the most recent NFL Draft, he was a part of a massive overhaul of the offensive tackle position in Kansas City—the most forward-thinking addition in an offseason made up of several moves to give the team different options. Orlando Brown was allowed to leave in free agency and Andrew Wylie followed suit. Instead the Chiefs spent big bucks on Jawaan Taylor in free agency and grabbed Donovan Smith to man the left side as well.

If Smith was a one-year patch to place on a need, Morris was the long-term hop intended to fix it in 2024 and beyond. But tied up in that was further competition from holdover young players like Lucas Niang (former third round) and Prince Tega Wanogho. How the quintet of options would sort themselves out was a mystery—and still is, technically.

But what was telling in the first game of the preseason for the Chiefs was that they are trying to learn anything they can about Morris in particular as they gave him more reps than anyone else by far—at any position. Morris played the left and right sides against the Saints and ended up playing 72 percent of all snaps when the next closest player was tight end Matt Bushman (at 56 percent).

While the position might not be exactly clear, it does seem like the Chiefs are enamored with him enough to play him over other prospects. That bodes well for the long term.