The Kansas City Chiefs offensive line struggled to fend off a dominant Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive line group in Super Bowl LV, but head coach Andy Reid isn’t sounding the alarms yet.
A former offensive lineman himself, Reid knows all too well the challenge that his guys faced on Super Bowl Sunday. He’s certainly not blaming the offensive line for the loss, nor are any of the Chiefs’ players. But it was clear that a lot of the struggles offensively came from the chemistry between the combination of players that Kansas City went with for the Super Bowl.
“Listen, I’m obviously not pointing my finger at the offensive line,” Reid told reporters on Monday. “I mean, we had guys that were moved around a little bit and they take great pride in their work and busted their tails.”
The Chiefs didn’t have much of a choice but to move those players around and put out what they believed to be the best combination of guys. They faced an unprecedented number of challenges between opt-outs and injuries on the offensive line this season. Veteran RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and rookie OT Lucas Niang were scratched before the season began due to COVID-19 opt-outs. By Week 6, the Chiefs had lost two former All-Pro’s in LG Kelechi Osemele and RT Mitchell Schwartz. The season-ending Achilles injury to LT Eric Fisher in the AFC Championship Game was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Despite the concerning developments during the 2020 NFL season and postseason, Reid remains optimistic for the future. He knows that they’ll get some guys back next season. He also knows that Chiefs GM Brett Veach will supplement that with a blend of veteran and rookie talent acquired in free agency and the draft.
“With the guys that are injured that are potentially coming back, or opted out or potentially coming back, we’ll kind of get all that covered here in the next couple of days,” Reid said. “I don’t think the outlook is bleak by any means. We should be good there. Then, Brett (Veach) will obviously keep an eye on that as he does everything and just see how that works.”
Will the Chiefs offensive line look different in 2021? I think there’s no question that it will. They’ll have decisions to make on players like Fisher and Schwartz. They’ll have a number of free agents whom they’ll either have to re-sign or let go of in free agency. Even with the coming changes, the sense among Reid remains that of optimism.
“I’m optimistic going forward,” Reid said. “And I’m proud of the guys and the effort that they gave last night.”
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