Do the Chiefs Still Need to Add a Veteran Left Tackle?

The craziest days of NFL free agency have come and gone, and the Kansas City Chiefs have made one splash at wide receiver and bolstered their defense with familiar faces, but they haven't yet added to their offensive line. Specifically at left tackle, the Chiefs have thinned out, but they do have options before the NFL Draft arrives in late April.

Donovan Smith is still on the market after being KC's starting left tackle last season and 2023 third-round draft pick Wanya Morris is set to enter his second year after starting four games in Smith's absence last season. Could another available veteran be next up? Jordan Foote of Arrowhead Report and I take a closer look at the Chiefs' options to protect Patrick Mahomes's blindside.

Joshua Brisco: The best-case scenario for the Chiefs is that Wanya Morris is a long-term, above-average answer to their left tackle question. Entering his age-24 season, Morris won't have a salary cap hit higher than $2 million at any point in his four-year rookie contract. Even with center Creed Humphrey and right guard Trey Smith in the last year of their rookie deals, the Chiefs are currently spending the sixth-most salary cap space on the offensive line for 2024, according to Spotrac, due to the nearly $27 million allocated for left guard Joe Thuney and $24.725 million for right tackle Jawaan Taylor. Behind only Patrick Mahomes, Thuney and Taylor have the second- and third-highest cap hits of anyone on the team in 2024.
All that to reemphasize: the best thing for KC short-term and long-term is for Morris to be the guy. Does that mean they should enter training camp with Morris running unopposed? I'm not quite ready to say that either. 

Jordan Foote: Morris deserves a chance to win the starting left tackle job, absolutely, but he can't win it by default. The Chiefs need to bring in some sort of competition for him, whether it be someone selected in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft or a free agent with question marks such as Mekhi Becton. Morris's performance was up-and-down in the four starts he made while relieving Donovan Smith, so I'm also not ready to say he's the clear-cut guy. Speaking of which... could reuniting with Smith simply be the answer? Running things back there for one more year wouldn't be the worst option. Is a veteran add more likely than another rookie?

Brisco: You've taken my least-exciting, most-reasonable option! Let's go back a few years, since we're here: I think many Chiefs fans largely over-criticized Orlando Brown Jr. and under-appreciated Smith, and I think both guys were always viewed through the lens of their cost and expectation. The Chiefs gave up a lot for Brown and he didn't deliver elite left tackle production. He did, however, start 39 games for the Chiefs in two years with one Super Bowl win. Again, not elite production, but he was largely pretty good. Smith, on a one-year, $3 million deal coming off an injured down-year, was also pretty good when he was healthy and available.
Elite left tackle play to protect the blindside of Patrick Mahomes would obviously be the best thing for the Chiefs, but elite left tackle play is expensive, either by free agent dollars or draft picks. I'd be comfortable with Morris, Smith, and perhaps another rookie tackle in the Round 3-5 range in the draft to refresh the developmental pipeline. They can't put a revolving door to the left of Mahomes, but bringing in a maximum number of feasible, sustainable options feels like the right path forward. 

Foote: The salary cap situation also makes things a bit tricky. With Marquise "Hollywood" Brown factored in, as well as an eventual 2024 NFL Draft class and a bit of space for the rest of the offseason, Kansas City simply doesn't have a ton to offer a free agent financially. The catch-22 is that unless a rookie is selected in the first two rounds, adding a veteran almost has to be the plan. Blindly trusting Morris is too risky. The Chiefs weren't going to compete in the Tyron Smith sweepstakes at the price point he got, so all signs point to a contract similar to Smith's last year. Who are your picks there: Smith himself, or someone else?

Brisco: Smith still feels most likely and most low-risk, but of the veteran names other than Smith, Becton is my favorite fit for the Chiefs for totally different reasons. He only played one game in 2021 and missed all of 2022, but those injury red flags are easier to gamble on with a former No. 11 overall draft pick who will be entering his age-25 season after playing 16 games in 2023. I'm not predicting that he'd rise back to the levels of his original pre-draft hype, but general manager Brett Veach loves a highly-drafted reclamation project, and if Becton could take steps under often-praised offensive line coach Andy Heck, he has the highest ceiling you could ask for at what should be a reasonable cost. On the other hand, 32-year-old former Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari has played in just 13 games in the last three seasons combined. Unless the Chiefs get massively optimistic reports about his medicals, I can't see them swinging for Bakhtiari.