Patrick Mahomes remains on track to start the season on time. No setbacks have emerged on his road back from December ACL and LCL tears. His tackle situation appears set to be quite different from 2025.
The Chiefs are replacing three-year right tackle starter Jawaan Taylor with Jaylon Moore, a $15MM-per-year player who filled in at both tackle spots last year. Although the plan is for Josh Simmons to remain at left tackle entering this season — and well beyond, if the Chiefs see the 2025 first-round pick develop as they hope — but another injury situation looks likely to force Kansas City into a Week 1 adjustment.
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Andy Reid said Tuesday (via ESPN.com’s Nate Taylor) the second-year LT is unlikely to play against the Broncos. The Ohio State product continues to deal with a back injury sustained last month. If Simmons is unable to go, the Chiefs look to be planning to keep Moore at RT and use Kahlil Benson — an Indiana alum who caught on with the team at rookie minicamp — on the blind side. That is how Kansas City lined up for its preseason finale.
Simmons missed nine games last season, first needing time away because of an unspecified personal issue and then finishing the season on IR due to a wrist injury. Pro Football Focus ranked Simmons 55th among tackles last season. This latest setback is obviously a concern for the Chiefs, who used a first-rounder here to stop a left tackle carousel that significantly impacted their 2024 season. Kansas City used four LT starters (Kingsley Suamataia, Wanya Morris, D.J. Humphries, Joe Thuney) in 2024 — a season that ended with Mahomes battered in a Super Bowl LIX blowout — and aimed to stabilize the high-profile spot with Simmons. That has not happened yet.
Benson impressed the Chiefs during the offseason program, to the point the team felt comfortable trading Morris to the Falcons, but it is certainly unusual for a player signed via a rookie-camp tryout to earn a Week 1 starting post. Kansas City saved $20MM by cutting Jawaan Taylor, who is now Atlanta’s starting RT, and will likely slide Moore to that role. That transition plan always seemed likely, due to Jawaan Taylor’s contract, but Nate Taylor notes Benson struggled in pass protection during the preseason. If Benson starts in Week 1, he will primarily face All-Pro Nik Bonitto, who spends most of his games rushing against LTs.
Evening this situation out to some degree, the Broncos will be without one of their outside linebacker starters thanks to Jonathon Cooper’s placement on the commissioner’s exempt list. Third-year EDGE Jonah Elliss is expected to start opposite Bonitto.
Benson started 12 games at RT for the national champion Hoosiers last season and started every Indiana game there in 2023. He made a pitstop at Colorado in 2024, being used primarily at guard. Benson’s RT experience makes the Chiefs’ Week 1 plan interesting, as Moore — former the 49ers’ Trent Williams backup — has played 1,042 snaps at left tackle and just 187 on the right side.
“We try to play the five best guys,” Reid said. “We’re comfortable with Kahlil on either side and he’s been [practicing] the left side. He’s doing a nice job with it. If he has to be the left tackle, he’s the left tackle and we roll with it.”
Kansas City could save a roster spot with a Simmons IR move before its Week 1 game; that would sideline him until at least Week 5. Considering what the Chiefs have invested in Simmons — who has been sidelined for nearly two weeks — such a move would be logical. Then again, with Mahomes likely to be less mobile as he returns from knee surgery, going week-to-week with the LT starter is understandable as well. The Chiefs did not use either of their IR-return designations on cutdown day, leaving them with eight entering the season.
