The Kansas City Chiefs are busy making additions to their roster in this year’s draft, and their third-round selection, TCU’s Lucas Niang, is another vital piece of the puzzle. General manager Brett Veach has alternative plans for the praised college offensive tackle.
Veach spoke last night after making the selection on his possible plan to have Niang switch positions in the NFL.
”Well I think right off the bat he’ll have a chance to kick in there and compete at guard,” Veach said of Niang in a conference call with the Kansas City media. “This will be a challenge when you have a virtual offseason and how much training camp do we have? So that will be a little bit of a challenge, but you do like the fact that this guy is extremely smart, intelligent. Let’s just play it out, we’ll play best-case scenario that we’re able to start training camp on time, I think you’ll see him pop right in there at guard and compete inside at guard.”
Niang started 27 of 44 played games during his college career at TCU, all playing the offensive tackle position. The most impressive stat to accompany his time at TCU is that he never allowed a sack during his college career. hE was even mentioned by second overall pick Chase Young as the best offensive tackle he’s ever faced.
“Coach (Andy) Heck does a great job of letting the guys work in at guard with the ones and twos and tackles a little bit with the threes,” said Veach. “I think that’s kind of what you’d see, you’d see him with the earlier groups at guard and then as the younger guy taking more reps with the second or third team as tackle just have him bounce in and out. You do hope you can get to training camp on time because you kind of need that onfield work for the young guys like this, but I certainly think he can get thrown right in the mix there at guard.”
The draft is still ongoing, and position options will vary amongst players. Niang is an excellent addition on the offensive line regardless of where he ends up playing for Kansas City.