This honestly looks like the Chiefs planned on drafting a tackle and didn't get their man....this was the backup plan....not really excited about this....but 9 mil says he's not a backup.
Seth you may have addressed this in an earlier thread, I'm trying to send a gift sub and it's defaulting to $30. Will it correct as I go through the process or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.
Thanks for this review. At least the Chiefs have some depth at tackle for this season with two seasoned vets in Smith and Taylor, Niang returning from injury, and a developmental prospect in Morris. I always say that every year is a scramble to build a complete roster, and 2023 has proven to be no exception.
I'm glad Veach embraces the scramble.
Of course, we won't really know how things will shake out until training camp, when the pads come on.
Considering the team had to address both tackle positions I think they are at least back to 4/5 of a great OL and with the fifth spot being no worse than last year. Depending on how camp and such play out they could be better if Niang, Morris, or Smith turn out to be better than OBJ or Wylie instead of replacement level. Taylor is improvement over one of them already. Scheming around one struggling or inconsistent OT is much easier than scheming around two like much of last year. Veach and Reid likely didn't fix the OL completely but I think they took a good step forward.
Best case, you have to figure he's the backup LT. Seems like an insurance policy on a 1 year deal if A. Taylor really struggles playing LT and they want to shift him back to RT or B. if the young RTs are a mess and they need Taylor to play over there while Niang / Morris figure it out.
I'd really be interested in a 30,000 foot view of how the Chiefs value receivers and offensive linemen. There was the huge debate a couple years ago about the Bengals selecting Chase or Sewell, and they went receiver, which has worked for them. The Chiefs have definitely gone OL, and it has also worked for them.
But now that the entire legion of zoom is gone, it feels like not just an entirely new group of receivers, but an entirely different philosophy of how to build out a receiving room. This is wild given how ridiculously successful the Chiefs offense was from 2018-2021.
I don't know what plan A for tackle this off-season was, but this surely can't have been it. I guess plan B was have a lot of options and see which ones stick (to the wall)?
Good that Veach seems to be prioritizing draft picks lately, cause we sorta didn't have much young depth up and coming at several positions, tackle being one of them.
Smiths Bes PFF LT rating was 14th in 2021 (his best ever) and then dropped ro 66th last year.
Orlando Brown's Best was last year ,ranking 19th Best at the LT position, in 2021 he was rated 28th best.
Hopefully we can turn him into another Willie Roaf who also joined us in his 9th year. Totally different type of Chiefs team then (2002-2005) but Roaf was a beast who New Orleans thought had seen his better years when they traded him to us.
Interesting move. Definitely seems like this was the back up plan if they couldn’t get their guy in the draft. Seems like a pretty solid plan B to have a lot of decent to good options and figure out which one will be best.
Ugh. In Veach we trust but if he was signed as anything other than a veteran backup I'm just so confused. Again, I have no reason to doubt Veach, but this just seems odd to me. I'd be way more excited to use that money on bring back Clark and/or Dunlap
This is an EXCELLENT signing.... if he's a backup.
If, as you mentioned, he's potentially one of the starters.... ehhh not as exciting. The good news, I guess, would be that it's an OBJ replacement for less than half what we'd be paying OBJ so that's worth it on it's own.
It very well maybe that the Chiefs could not draft the LT they wanted, but having a vet in camp in whatever role makes sense. A one year contract at "$9 million" shouts temporary.
I've done next to no research on run blocking for LTs, because I've been so convinced that the #1 job of a KC LT is to protect Mahomes. So it is interesting to hear your opinion from the film about Smith's run blocking.
As far as pass protection goes, I'm with you that he's not going to be worse than OBJ last year. Smith was 15th in snaps per pressure allowed (20.1) compared to Brown at 28th (15.4). Similarly to Brown, the biggest issue for Smith last year was his salary: he counted $18.4m against the cap, making him the second worst value in the league behind OBJ when comparing cap hit to the pressures allowed statistic.
So I'm also with you that the ideal would be that the switch goes smoothly and Taylor is a real upgrade at LT. But I'm good with Smith as a backup plan if it doesn't work out, because I don't think the Chiefs have another great LT option on the roster right now.
Great...another Brown that doesn't run block as well.....9 mil?...... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This honestly looks like the Chiefs planned on drafting a tackle and didn't get their man....this was the backup plan....not really excited about this....but 9 mil says he's not a backup.
Seth you may have addressed this in an earlier thread, I'm trying to send a gift sub and it's defaulting to $30. Will it correct as I go through the process or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.
Just when the running game looked alive, we bring in this guy!
He would be great backup for both Taylor and Thuney on the left side if Taylor secures the LT spot.
Thanks for this review. At least the Chiefs have some depth at tackle for this season with two seasoned vets in Smith and Taylor, Niang returning from injury, and a developmental prospect in Morris. I always say that every year is a scramble to build a complete roster, and 2023 has proven to be no exception.
I'm glad Veach embraces the scramble.
Of course, we won't really know how things will shake out until training camp, when the pads come on.
Considering the team had to address both tackle positions I think they are at least back to 4/5 of a great OL and with the fifth spot being no worse than last year. Depending on how camp and such play out they could be better if Niang, Morris, or Smith turn out to be better than OBJ or Wylie instead of replacement level. Taylor is improvement over one of them already. Scheming around one struggling or inconsistent OT is much easier than scheming around two like much of last year. Veach and Reid likely didn't fix the OL completely but I think they took a good step forward.
Best case, you have to figure he's the backup LT. Seems like an insurance policy on a 1 year deal if A. Taylor really struggles playing LT and they want to shift him back to RT or B. if the young RTs are a mess and they need Taylor to play over there while Niang / Morris figure it out.
I'd really be interested in a 30,000 foot view of how the Chiefs value receivers and offensive linemen. There was the huge debate a couple years ago about the Bengals selecting Chase or Sewell, and they went receiver, which has worked for them. The Chiefs have definitely gone OL, and it has also worked for them.
But now that the entire legion of zoom is gone, it feels like not just an entirely new group of receivers, but an entirely different philosophy of how to build out a receiving room. This is wild given how ridiculously successful the Chiefs offense was from 2018-2021.
I don't know what plan A for tackle this off-season was, but this surely can't have been it. I guess plan B was have a lot of options and see which ones stick (to the wall)?
Good that Veach seems to be prioritizing draft picks lately, cause we sorta didn't have much young depth up and coming at several positions, tackle being one of them.
Smiths Bes PFF LT rating was 14th in 2021 (his best ever) and then dropped ro 66th last year.
Orlando Brown's Best was last year ,ranking 19th Best at the LT position, in 2021 he was rated 28th best.
Hopefully we can turn him into another Willie Roaf who also joined us in his 9th year. Totally different type of Chiefs team then (2002-2005) but Roaf was a beast who New Orleans thought had seen his better years when they traded him to us.
Interesting move. Definitely seems like this was the back up plan if they couldn’t get their guy in the draft. Seems like a pretty solid plan B to have a lot of decent to good options and figure out which one will be best.
Ugh. In Veach we trust but if he was signed as anything other than a veteran backup I'm just so confused. Again, I have no reason to doubt Veach, but this just seems odd to me. I'd be way more excited to use that money on bring back Clark and/or Dunlap
This is an EXCELLENT signing.... if he's a backup.
If, as you mentioned, he's potentially one of the starters.... ehhh not as exciting. The good news, I guess, would be that it's an OBJ replacement for less than half what we'd be paying OBJ so that's worth it on it's own.
It very well maybe that the Chiefs could not draft the LT they wanted, but having a vet in camp in whatever role makes sense. A one year contract at "$9 million" shouts temporary.
I've done next to no research on run blocking for LTs, because I've been so convinced that the #1 job of a KC LT is to protect Mahomes. So it is interesting to hear your opinion from the film about Smith's run blocking.
As far as pass protection goes, I'm with you that he's not going to be worse than OBJ last year. Smith was 15th in snaps per pressure allowed (20.1) compared to Brown at 28th (15.4). Similarly to Brown, the biggest issue for Smith last year was his salary: he counted $18.4m against the cap, making him the second worst value in the league behind OBJ when comparing cap hit to the pressures allowed statistic.
So I'm also with you that the ideal would be that the switch goes smoothly and Taylor is a real upgrade at LT. But I'm good with Smith as a backup plan if it doesn't work out, because I don't think the Chiefs have another great LT option on the roster right now.