Chiefs News: The battle to start at left tackle is vital

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Every NFL Team’s Most Important Training Camp Battle in 2024 | Bleacher Report

Kansas City: Left Tackle

For the third season in a row, the Kansas City Chiefs will enter the campaign with questions at wide receiver. That’s turned out to be just fine the last two years, though.

Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and Travis Kelce are going to mitigate the importance of that battle.

The competition to be the blindside protector, however, is much harder to minimize.

Last year, the Chiefs signed Donovan Smith to a one-year deal. He was cut from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the veteran was hypothetically a good value. The move didn’t work out all that well. He only surrendered three sacks but had 28 blown passing blocks, per Sports Info Solutions.

The 30-year-old remains unsigned as the calendar slips into the summer months.

Instead of bringing him back, the Chiefs are letting second-year player Wanya Morris and rookie Kingsley Suamataia compete for the job.

Morris got four starts when Smith was injured last season, and the results weren’t great. He had 21 blown passing blocks and gave up five sacks, per SIS. Still, he was a third-round draft pick getting thrown into the fire as a rookie.

The Chiefs took Suamataia in the second round, but B/R’s Brandon Thorn noted that he’s only 21 years old and likely needs some refinement.

Kansas City is betting a lot that one of the two young tackles will be good enough to help it become back-to-back-to-back champions.

Every NFL team’s most notable offseason departure: Patriots, Seahawks part ways with legendary coaches | CBS Sports

Kansas City Chiefs: L’Jarius Sneed

L’Jarius Sneed has played his entire four-year career with the Chiefs and helped the organization win back-to-back Super Bowl titles up until this offseason. Kansas City placed the franchise tag on him in early March, but weeks later traded him to the Titans for a 2025 third-rounder. Tennessee then signed him to a four-year, $76.4 million contract. Sneed was a starting-caliber player within the Chiefs secondary, so it’ll be interesting to see how the defending champs cushion the blow of his departure.

How do AFC running back groups stack up heading into the 2024 season? | The Athletic

Overall rushing success might not reflect an overall solid attack. That said, Isiah Pacheco certainly stands as an effective running back and vital piece to the offensive production for the Chiefs. They just can’t get any other running backs involved, which isn’t a sustainable plan.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire should probably feel lucky to be back on the roster, considering his lack of playing time and downturn (3.2 yards per carry in 2023). With no one else of note on the roster, Pacheco could be relied upon even more than last year as the primary back.

Around the NFL

Minnesota Vikings unveil ‘Winter Warrior’ alternate uniforms | USA Today

Regardless, the Vikes became the latest team to unveil an alternate uniform, Thursday’s rollout coming with a bit of a “Game of Thrones” vibe for the club’s icy “Winter Warrior” look.

The unis will feature a white helmet with silver stripe, both firsts in the franchise’s 63-year history. A silver stripe also adorns the legs of the pants. Gold has been stripped from this version. The number font includes “dripping icicle serifs” and the neckline has a new “Nordic knot” as part of a presentation the team deems the “coldest uniform in the league.” Per the club, the knot “includes three shields as a nod to Head Coach Kevin O’Connell’s mantra: ‘Our Way. Our Team. Our Process.’”

Jalen Hurts says 95% of Eagles’ offense for 2024 is new | ESPN

“You get to a point where you feel, I’m going to be comfortable with this, I like this, that time comes when you can rep it, rep it, rep it later on, but right now it’s been a lot of new inventory in — the majority of it, probably 95% of it being new — and so it’s just been that process and it’s been a fun process because you get to see what works for other people,” Hurts said.

“I think the goal coming in was to learn Kellen’s offense and to master it, and I think that’s been a process and by the end of it, I want it to be mine and have it in my own way.”

Coach Nick Sirianni and Moore, who replaced the fired Brian Johnson this offseason, had previously described the offense as a hybrid scheme that incorporates concepts from both Sirianni’s and Moore’s previous systems.

Caleb Williams: I tell myself every day “we’re gonna be pretty damn good” | NBC Sports

Williams has spent the last few weeks learning the offense and creating chemistry with teammates as the Bears work to prepare for the 2024 season. The work has left Williams with high hopes for what a unit with players like Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, D’Andre Swift, Cole Kmet, and Rome Odunze will be able to do once they hit the field this fall.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Williams said, via Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times. “There’s a light at the end of that tunnel. Right now we’re working with our head down and we’re building, [but] just having that moment with myself — I do it every day — to sit there and say, ‘We’re gonna be pretty damn good.’ So I’ve just gotta keep going, keep working, and we’re all excited. It’s really important to have that mindset, but also have the mindset of let’s keep going, let’s keep working, let’s get after it.”

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

Report: Chiefs re-signing wide receiver Mecole Hardman

Still just 26 years old, Hardman will be entering his sixth NFL season.

Kansas City selected the former Georgia wideout in the second round (56th overall) in the 2019 NFL Draft. While Hardman collected at least 500 receiving yards in every one of his first three seasons with the Chiefs, he was overshadowed by wide receiver Tyreek Hill.

After Hill was traded to the Miami Dolphins in 2022, though, Hardman missed the final nine games of the regular season with a mysterious injury. Eventually, we learned that it osteitis pubis — an inflammation of the joints in the pubic bones — that required a harrowing hospital stay and surgery to correct.

So Hardman gained just 297 yards on 34 targets during the regular season — and after he was re-injured in the AFC Championship against the Cincinnati Bengals, the die was cast. The wide receiver was allowed to walk in free agency, during which he signed a one-year, $6.5 million deal with the New York Jets.

During the first six weeks of the 2023 season, the Chiefs’ wide receiver group was struggling — and in New York, Hardman wasn’t catching on. So the Jets traded Hardman back to the Chiefs. He missed five of the regular season’s remaining 11 games with a thumb injury — accumulating just 118 yards on 21 targets — but ended up as the hero of Super Bowl LVIII after catching the touchdown pass that sealed the team’s 25-22 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.

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