Kingsley Suamataia preseason week 2: What's the verdict?
The Chiefs' presumptive starter at LT saw a lot more action vs Detroit. How'd he do?
Look, as I start writing this, it’s 7:24 Arrowhead Time following the Chiefs’ second preseason game. It’s a Saturday night, Mrs. MNchiefsfan is waiting on me, and you’ve all got better things to do than read through a giant introduction.
So let’s make this quick, shall we? Kingsley Suamataia is one of the biggest unknowns on the Chiefs’ roster heading into 2024. We know he’s going to be the starter, but last week’s 6 whole snaps (and really only 2 that mattered) didn’t tell us much about him besides the fact that he’s got some nice traits.
Kingsley saw WAY more snaps against the Lions in his second preseason game. You know the drill here! You want to know how he did, and I’ve looked at the snaps. Let’s talk about them, breaking them down snap by snap and talking more about what traits he showed in a larger sample size. I don’t mind telling you, after re-watching I’m even more (cautiously) optimistic than I was following last week.
In case you’ve forgotten or are new to this site, the way I review/chart OL play is for wins, losses, and neutral plays as a pass blocker (“PB”) and a run blocker (“RB”), while also looking at pressures/hits/sacks allowed. It’s a way to isolate how the lineman performed from the rest of the offense while avoiding some of the pitfalls of gauging offensive line play.
As a refresher, keep in mind that a 10% loss percentage is my line for what I’m comfortable with from a starter. There’s some variation game-by-game depending on quality of competition and amount of “help” a tackle gets (in the form of chips, moving pockets, rollouts, play action, slides, etc), but that 10% has served me well over the years. And losses are definitely the stat to watch the closest. The problem with a loss from an offensive lineman is that it can torpedo a play or, at the very least, make it much more difficult for the play to succeed. In other words, a win by a lineman doesn’t guarantee success, but a loss goes a long way towards guaranteeing failure.
Let’s speed run through Kingsley’s second pro action and how he performed with an actual sample size of snaps. After all, Mrs. MNchiefsfan won’t wait forever!
(Yes, the Xavier Worthy film review is coming as soon as I get all-22. Probably one on Hicks as well. Maybe Carson Steele. And one on Mahomes throwing it BEHIND HIS BACK IN AN NFL GAME. Dang, I’ve got a lot of work to do this week!)