KC Chiefs should consider trading o-line help to Seattle Seahawks

Jake Curham and Stone Forsythe. Those are the names of the starting offensive tackles these days for the Seattle Seahawks. For a team with legitimate reasons to believe they can contend among the NFC's best, this is not a good thing.

Of course, it's not Seattle's fault that freak injuries occur, and that's exactly what happened when both promising second-year OTs went down in the first week of the season. Charles Cross and Abe Lucas were both lost during the team's opening loss to the L.A. Rams and remained out during the team's Week 2 victory over the Detroit Lions. It's too early yet to tell if Cross will come back for Week 3, but Lucas was placed on injured reserve fairly quickly, which takes him out for the next couple of games at least, if not more.

While Curham and Forsythe did an admirable job, no one is ready to hand them a long-term starting role. The Seahawks know they need to get their young starters back in the lineup as soon as possible, but adding further depth and competition could help in the short-term, too. That's where the Kansas City Chiefs could come in.

The Chiefs have a surplus of options at offensive tackle early in the 2023 NFL season.

At the present time, the Chiefs have five offensive tackles on the depth chart. Beginning with starters Donovan Smith and Jawaan Taylor, the Chiefs also utilize Prince Tega Wanogho as their swing tackle who is active on Sundays. Both Lucas Niang and Wanya Morris have been healthy scratches for the season's first two weeks, and it makes sense for the Chiefs to explore a potential deal if the position stays healthy.

Morris was the team's third-round pick this spring, so no one is going to deal him at this point. However, other teams should be interested in Niang to varying degrees given that he's had no problems claiming starting spots before, and he's still on his rookie contract.

Niang is a former third-round pick of the Chiefs in 2020 who deferred his rookie campaign to 2021, which means he still has two cost-controlled years to go. Yet when he was playing even after sitting out, he was able to claim the right tackle role pretty quicky. Coming back from injury, Niang even reclaimed the role once again, proving he's still a fighter for serious playing time.

While the Chiefs appear to have moved on, Niang still holds value in the present and fuutre. For a team like Seattle, Niang could come in and be the swing tackle when healthy, a guy with the track record of versatility to help out on the left or right. It also provides some extra depth and competitive options until Cross is back from his toe injury and/or Lucas comes off of IR>

What would it take? The Chiefs have a third round sunk into the pick with Wanogho and Morris waiting in the wings. You have to believe a 5th or 6th round pick would be enough to recoup a draft asset for Veach while giving Seattle the goods to stay afloat early in the season through some tough hits to the o-line.