There are nine games in the books — with eight more to go. The Kansas City Chiefs are taking their bye week in Week 10, so it’s time to dish out some midseason awards.
10 Arrowhead Pride contributors voted
to award seven midseason awards. In this post, we’ll reveal our top offensive rookie to this point of the season.
OT – Joshua Simmons
VOTING: OT Joshua Simmons (10)
After nine weeks of the NFL season, it’s a no-brainer to choose the Chiefs’ top offensive rookie.
Coming off a shortened senior season due to a patellar tendon rupture he suffered at Ohio State, there were some questions about when Simmons would be ready to step onto the field — and if he could return to the level of play he had displayed before the injury. This allowed Simmons — who very likely would have been a top 10 talent in the NFL Draft — to fall to Kansas City at the end of the first round.
From Day 1 of training camp, Simmons established himself as the clear starter at left tackle, immediately settling one of the few position battles on the team’s roster. From July until early October, everything was just as the Chiefs envisioned when they selected him with the 32nd overall selection. He more than solidified a weakness the Kansas City offensive line had displayed ever since the release of left tackle Eric Fisher in 2020.
Simmons started the team’s first five games at left tackle alongside second-year player Kingsley Suamataia, who had switched to guard after spending his rookie season as a tackle. While the Chiefs’ offense certainly struggled with the running game, the pass blocking was significantly improved with Simmons and Suamataia on the left side. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes was sacked just seven times in these games.
Since then, Simmons has missed four games while attending to a personal family matter that has not been disclosed. In those games — in which right guard Trey Smith also missed time — Mahomes was sacked 10 times.
Simmons returned to the team this week, giving him the bye week to get re-acclimated before the team’s next game: a Week 11 road matchup against the Denver Broncos.
While Simmons’ absence has been mysterious, there has been no doubt he’s an excellent left tackle. With this incident behind him, the team (and its fans) hope he will have a long career anchoring the left side of the offensive line.
