With just over a week to go until the 2021 NFL draft, the Kansas City Chiefs still have a glaring hole at the offensive tackle position.
The team released former No. 1 overall draft pick and starting left tackle, Eric Fisher, as a part of a cost-cutting measure. They also released their top free-agent signing from 2016 and starting right tackle, Mitchell Schwartz, for the same reasons. Both players are recovering from injury and with their availability in question, the team had no choice but to move on.
“Unfortunately, with the first two that I mentioned, with Schwartz and Fish, you run into these cap situations,” Chiefs HC Andy Reid told reporters on Monday. “Brett Veach and his crew have done a great job of managing this to give us opportunities to continue to work at the top of the league as a football team and some of these things had to be done. But the greatest thing about this is, those guys, with their stay in Kansas City, they go out as champs. They can hold that with them and they’ll be revered here forever and celebrated for that forever in this city.”
Those moves left fans clamoring for a free-agent signing at the position, but nothing ever came. Now, fans have turned their attention to the draft. How do the Chiefs view the position group internally, though? Reid also spoke on the subject during his Monday media availability.
“Yeah, so we forget about a couple of [players],” Reid began. “(Lucas) Niang is another one that we had high hopes for last year. [He] had a couple of nice days with us before he opted out. I think we’re OK there now, but I’ve said this before, Brett (Veach) is always keeping his eyes open. So we’ll see how it all ends up.”
Reid isn’t ruling out Veach making more additions via the draft, free agency or even trade. In fact, he seems to be expecting some moves in the coming weeks.
“Veach isn’t done,” Reid said. “You know how he rolls, he’s very aggressive and he’s staying on top of his game.”
Reid also doesn’t believe the team is absent of in-house options at both tackle spots as things currently stand. He feels they’ve got the pieces to create competition, which always brings the best players to the forefront.
“We’ve got some good competition in there,” Reid continued. “I think we know that Kyle Long can play tackle, he was an All-Pro tackle actually, [during] his rookie year. We’ve got options and people in there. I wouldn’t tell you at any position that we’re done looking. We’re always going to keep our eyes open and try to make ourselves better, which we need to do. You know, we’ve got to do that. When you’re sitting in our position, you’re not just striving to stay the same, you’re trying to get yourself better.”
Specifically, at the left tackle spot, Reid suggested a handful of options. That includes former third-round draft pick Lucas Niang, free-agent signing Kyle Long, and both Super Bowl LV starters, who re-signed with the team in free agency.
“We’re fitting that through,” Reid said. “We had aspirations of maybe moving Niang over to that spot. He looked like he had some potential for that when we had him last. Obviously, Kyle (Long) has that flex to be able to do something like that. He’s played inside too, I mean the majority of the time he played inside, but he wasn’t bad on the outside either. And then we’ve got guys coming back, whether it’s Rem (Mike Remmers) or whether it’s Andrew (Wylie). We’ve got guys that also have the flexibility to play in those spots.”
Reid also mentioned a future return for both Fisher and Schwartz, who remain free agents following their respective releases from the Chiefs. If and when they get healthy, there’s always a possibility that we see one or both of them back in Kansas City.
“And you never know,” Reid said. “This is a small fraternity of teams, so you never know, what goes around to you could come back to you. Not that they’re back with us at some point, but that door always remains open. They did it the right way here.”
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