Breaking down the Kansas City Chiefs draft options at offensive tackle

Elite Right Tackle Prospects

The following three prospects are definitely first-round talents. The problem for the Chiefs is that they don't have left tackle experience, and I would argue that two of the three don't even warrant consideration for trying to move them there. So the Chiefs would be committing a first-round pick (and possibly more in a trade-up) to take a prospect who would either have to play a spot they've never played before, or the Chiefs would have to risk moving Jawaan Taylor to left tackle so they could play their first-round pick in their natural spot.

Taliese Fuaga - Oregon State - 6'6" - 324 pounds - 33 1/8" arms

Taliese Fuaga is a mauler who is constantly looking to push around defenders. It's fun to watch, but he's not the kind of natural lateral mover that you want in pass protection. There's no chance a team would move him to left tackle and it's much more likely that his shorter arms and physical play style will get him moved inside to guard. He's a great player, but he doesn't make a lot of sense for the Chiefs.

JC Latham - Alabama - 6'6" - 342 pounds - 35 1/8" arms

JC Latham is a massive and physically imposing right tackle prospect. I like him more than Fuaga, especially at tackle. Despite being even thicker, he moves well enough in pass protection to let his long arms keep pass rushers from getting past him. While I love his upside at right tackle, I just don't think a move to the left side is his best future, so once again we're talking about a questionable fit for the Chiefs, especially if they had to pay to move up and take him.

Amarius Mims - Georgia - 6'8" - 340 pounds - 36 1/8" arms

Amarius Mims is a freak. People his size with his level of athleticism are extremely rare, even in the NFL. Mims has minimal starting experience in college and the little he had was at right tackle. He has the build and athleticism to be a potential left tackle, but there are a ton of questions (or risks) here.

In order to draft Mims the Chiefs would likely have to trade up because his physical upside is going to put him in high demand, but that means they're investing more than a first-round pick in a player with minimal college starting experience and no left tackle experience. Is the upside worth the risk? Time will tell.

That's the end of the list of elite top tackle prospects in this draft class. To recap, there are two elite left tackles that will likely go too high for KC to get, one left tackle that might be viewed as too small and will still likely go too high for KC, two right tackle-only prospects, and one right tackle that might be able to switch to left tackle, but has very little overall experience and the Chiefs would still likely have to trade up for him.

That doesn't seem overly promising, so what does the next tier of tackle prospects look like? Let's start with the ones that probably don't have the length to play tackle for K.C.