The Kansas City Chiefs had all sorts of injury issues this past season, with the five regular starters rarely all taking the field together. Thankfully, they'd picked up a solid backup option in the offseason, albeit a fairly costly one.
Last March, seemingly looking to lock in a starting left tackle, the Chiefs signed Jaylon Moore, who spent the first four years of his career with the San Francisco 49ers, to a two-year contract worth up to $30 million, with $21.24 million in guarantees. That's not high-level money for an offensive tackle these days, but it's still a starter's salary, which is why it was a little surprising to see Kansas City take Justin Simmons in the first round of the draft.
As such, with Simmons coming in and taking left tackle and right tackle obviously being reserved for right tackle Jawaan Taylor, Moore found himself as a highly-paid reserve, at least for much of the season, as he ended up starting six games, four when Simmons was out with a personal issue and another two toward the end of the season when Taylor was injured. Moore, of course, missed two games of his own in Weeks 16 and 17 with a knee injury.
As we're in the process of regrading some of the Chiefs' free-agent signings from a year ago (we recently did Kristian Fulton), let's have a look at Moore's 2025 campaign a little bit more closely.
Jaylon Moore had a decent enough season for the Chiefs in 2025 but has to be better in 2026
All in all, Moore took 427 offensive snaps for the Chiefs in 2025, breaking down with 283 at left tackle, 132 at right tackle, and another 12 at tight end. So, we'll certainly give credit where credit is due for versatility, which is a great thing to have for any offensive lineman.
If we're putting a letter grade on things, it might be a bit of a copout, but we're just gonna have to roll with a straight "C" here, as he wasn't bad, but he also wasn't great. So, we think right down the middle is pretty fair, maybe even a little generous.
Among 89 qualifying OTs this past year, Moore's 63.1 overall grade ranked 56th. Breaking things down by category, his 62.9 run-blocking grade ranked 54th, but his 57.1 pass-blocking grade ranked 72nd, partly due to the fact that he allowed 27 total pressures and three sacks. That may not seem like a lot over 427 snaps, but those numbers aren't ideal. To his credit, though, he wasn't penalized once throughout the entire year, which is always a plus.
So, again, things could have been worse, but they obviously could have been a lot better. And they're going to have to be in 2026, as one would assume that with Taylor being released, Moore is now the prime candidate to start at right tackle, with Simmons manning the left side. The Chiefs could draft another tackle, of course, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens there. For now, Moore and his $18.685 million cap hit are on the clock to contribute.