Welcome back to the Arrowhead Pride Mailbag! Each week, watch for your opportunity to submit your Kansas City Chiefs questions in The Feed, which is found on AP’s home page.
Now that we’ve had a few days to stew over the Chiefs’ 27-21 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1, let’s jump right in.
ArkChief71 asks:
How could the Chiefs’ pass defense be so poor against the Chargers? It looked like they were just surrendering half of the field.
Although Kansas City’s pass defense was probably the biggest factor in the loss,
our first reaction should be to commend the Chargers for an outstanding game plan. After signing Najee Harris at the start of free agency — and then drafting running back Omari0n Hampton with the 22nd overall pick in April — most observers expected a run-heavy offensive game plan in line with head coach Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s long-time preferences. Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo apparently expected that, too — before seeing quarterback Justin Herbert have arguably the best game of his career.
Although the Chargers aren’t the best team on Kansas City’s schedule, having a franchise quarterback they’d never been able to unleash may have helped their unscouted Week 1 look succeed. Looking ahead, I am concerned about the raw talent that the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens will bring to their matchups with the Chiefs — but I don’t see either team coming to Arrowhead with a totally unexpected offensive script, either.
I also wonder if the team made a late decision to limit cornerback Kristian Fulton’s snaps — perhaps due to concerns about the field in Brazil or the two-hour gameday bus ride. Fulton’s 46 snaps in the third preseason game (and being listed as a full participant in last week’s practices) suggested he would have an every-down role. Instead, he played only 15 snaps — and there were signs that assignments for other defensive backs were being shuffled on the fly.
The pass defense is concerning — but before we panic, we need more data.
But who leads the secondary?
We’renotworthy asks:
Who’s going to step into Justin Reid’s role? The miscommunication in the secondary was evident all night long on Friday. I have to believe it has to do with a lack of leadership, experience and/or accountability from the safety position.
With Reid now residing in the New Orleans Home for Former Chiefs, Trent McDuffie is the secondary’s leader. But we probably won’t see the passionate on-field correction to which we became accustomed with both Reid and his predecessor Tyrann Mathieu. In training camp, McDuffie explained that he doesn’t believe on-field messages are always heard; he prefers to address teammates on the sideline.
McDuffie’s approach to leadership (and overall communication in the secondary) both deserve scrutiny, but one game under suboptimal conditions is not a sufficient sample.
Could help be on the way, though?
da’Monk asks:
Do you think general manager Brett Veach stands pat with the current team? Or will Kansas City make moves with some vets? Like Stephon Gilmore, Justin Simmons (assuming he would even agree to play for the Chiefs), Allen Robinson II or Tyler Boyd? There seem to be some obtainable vets — but I’m not sure if Veach and the coaches will stand with their current hand.
The Chiefs’ current run of success has largely been aided by head coach Andy Reid (and Spagnuolo) being more willing to let rookies take major roles faster than either of them tended to do earlier in their careers. So during training camp, we were very excited about Kansas City’s rookie class. But after only one game (taking place on a different continent — and that two rookies missed with injury) we should probably withhold judgement on the class.
So it’s more likely that in the coming weeks, the team will give rookies heavier loads, rather than sign declining veterans who would keep young talent on the bench.
In addition, after the Chiefs signed guard Trey Smith to a new deal — lowering his 2025 salary from the franchise tag amount — we did not expect the in-season salary cap to be an issue. But Kansas City now has about $11.3 million in cap space taken up by 11 players on its Reserve lists: Injured, Suspended and Non-Football Injury. So we estimate the team has only about $2.6 million in cap — and much of that could be needed to sign a minimum salary player if Xavier Worthy ends up on Reserve/Injured. So without opening some space, adding veterans will be difficult. Expect it to be a few games before major additions are considered.
The Chiefs’ easiest path to more cap room would involve a contract restructure for the player addressed in our last question — and would make him harder to release in the offseason.
rainet asks:
Why does Andy Reid continue to put our current right tackle out there when we have a significant investment in another offensive tackle from free agency? Jawaan Taylor is an experienced vet that has continued to make pre-snap mistakes for multiple years now. WHY isn’t “NEXT” higher up in Andy’s vocabulary?
The idea that Jaylon Moore should replace Jawaan Taylor (who was called for four penalties in Brazil) is a popular one this week — and I do expect that Taylor is now on a shorter leash than in the past. With Moore guaranteed $7 million in 2026 salary against Taylor’s non-guaranteed $19.5 million, the Chiefs should be motivated to assess right tackle before next season.
I think Moore will eventually replace Taylor — but I also see two reasons it might take longer than fans demand.
Moore may not be a simple plug-and-play solution on the right. In San Francisco, he worked almost exclusively on the left side as a designated backup for the oft-injured Trent Williams, who also missed many practices. Per PFF, Moore has only played 55 career snaps at right tackle, all coming in 2021.
So yes… Taylor’s penalties are frustrating. But he is a known commodity. The Chiefs would be wise to wait until Patrick Mahomes is fully comfortable with rookie Josh Simmons on the left side before switching the other tackle.
The Chiefs also rotated Moore with Kingsley Suamataia at left guard in camp. Suamataia’s performance in Brazil was not overly concerning, but he still needs to prove he can handle his new position longer than he did at left tackle in 2024. In essence, moving Moore to right tackle would be a de facto commitment to Suamataia at left guard. Kansas City might not be ready to make that move yet.
A number of readers asked about the Chiefs’ running game. We’ll consider that topic — and your other questions — in next week’s Arrowhead Pride Mailbag! Keep watching The Feed for a chance to ask your question.
