Chiefs’ offensive line will be remembered for how it ended. Where does it go from here?
In a Super Bowl postmortem, the Chiefs will identify a number of reasons they suffered their worst defeat of the past three years. They can point to dropped passes, missed coverage, special teams lapses, even a couple of blown calls.
But in whatever list they formulate, they must place one culprit somewhere near the top.
The offensive line.
The Chiefs were exposed up front so consistently that it leaves the offensive line as an overriding theme of the offseason, if not the most obvious need.
How will the front office react to what it saw on Super Bowl Sunday? The Chiefs will be calculated in their approach, analyzing the full 19 games rather than a knee-jerk response to the ugly conclusion.
“I don’t think the outlook is bleak by any means,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said last week.
As The Star analyzes each of the team’s position groups — a combination of a look back and a look ahead — we start with the offensive line.
2020 FINAL ROSTER: Nick Allegretti, Yasir Durant, Daniel Kilgore, Martinas Rankin, Austin Reiter, Mike Remmers, Stefen Wisniewski, Andrew Wylie
INJURED RESERVE: Eric Fisher (Achilles), Mitchell Schwartz (back), Kelechi Osemele (knees)
2020 OPT-OUTS: Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Lucas Niang
2021 FREE AGENTS: Daniel Kilgore, Kelechi Osemele, Austin Reiter, Mike Remmers, Stefen Wisniewski
POSITION REVIEW
They’ll be remembered for how it ended.
Even if wasn’t all bad.
Those images of quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambling in the Super Bowl will be hard to shake. He ran 497 yards behind the line of scrimmage in search of time to throw the football, per NextGen Stats. Afterward, Mahomes and Reid did their best to deflect the attention off the offensive line, each owning some blame, but the Chiefs were thoroughly handled at the line of scrimmage.
When assessing the offensive line, however, it’s important to remember the five who comprised the Super Bowl lineup is not the unit the Chiefs had planned on having to use in a game of that magnitude. They had just one starter playing in his normal spot remaining by season’s end, with most notably their two highly compensated tackles (Eric Fisher, Mitchell Schwartz) out with long-term injuries.
Despite the rotations, the Chiefs line actually held up OK before the Super Bowl. For the season, they still had the 12th-best pass-blocking grade and 12th-best run-blocking grade on Pro Football Focus. They can live with that.
But...
LOOKING AHEAD
A lot of unknowns.
It starts with those tackles. Schwartz spent the first eight years of his NFL career (four of them in Kansas City) as one of the game’s most reliable players, but a back injury limited him to just six starts in 2020. He never returned to practice, and given his nature to play through injury, that alone should be an indicator of the severity if the issue. What can the Chiefs realistically expect from Schwartz in 2021?
Fisher suffered a torn Achilles in the closing moments of the AFC Championship Game, and the Chiefs missed him dearly in the Super Bowl. They were 26-1 over the past two seasons in which Fisher started. An Achilles injury requires a long rehab, putting his 2021 season in serious doubt.
In other words, one year after the Chiefs did their best to preserve their roster, the offensive line could encounter some change. If the two tackles can’t go next year — and it’s highly likely at least Fisher cannot — the Chiefs will need to look outside their facility for replacements. The draft stands as a good place to start.
The good news: They will welcome back Duvernay-Tardif after he opted out of the season to serve on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. He should slot back into the lineup. Niang opted out of his rookie season and is also expected to be back. He’s capable of playing multiple positions, and the Chiefs had hoped to use his rookie season to evaluate which one he might be able to take over on a permanent role. Instead, without an NFL snap to his name, his contribution remains a question.
Mike Remmers provided a solid backup option and stood his own in place of Schwartz at right tackle. He was exposed on the left side, but a one-year reunion could make some sense.
ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK?
Eric Fisher has a $15.2 million cap charge next season, sixth highest on the team. Because of his injury, though, the Chiefs would need to reach an injury settlement rather than release him outright. On the other hand, they could look to add a year to his deal in order to bring down his 2021 cap charge.
Either way, there figures to be some sort of adjustment to his contract.
Center Austin Reiter is set to hit free agency and will be 30 when the season begins. The Chiefs could benefit from lowering their cost ($3.8 million cap charge in 2020) at the position. The free agency list of centers is thin, though, which could benefit Reiter in any negotiations. If the price becomes too steep, the Chiefs have the in-house option of sliding Nick Allegretti to center.