For the fourth straight year, I’m considering the 10 biggest questions I have for the Kansas City Chiefs for 2026. Let’s get started!
I’ve been doing this series for four years, and each year, one of the biggest questions about the Chiefs going into the season is the team’s plan at offensive tackle. Since left tackle Eric Fisher and right tackle Mitchell Schwartz got injured during the 2020 season, the Chiefs have been through numerous tackle combinations and haven’t landed on a long-term one yet.
In the 2021 and 2022 seasons, the Chiefs traded for left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. and had guard Andrew Wylie play right tackle for most of those seasons. After the 2022 season, the Chiefs decided not to pay Brown or Wylie and let them go in free agency. The front office signed right tackle Jawaan Taylor and left tackle Donovan Smith in free agency. Taylor was disappointing but did start for three seasons. Smith dealt with injuries and inconsistent play, rotating with the since-traded Wanya Morris at left tackle.
For the 2024 season, the Chiefs drafted Kingsley Suamataia in the second round to be the future left tackle. Suamataia won the job in training camp, but was quickly benched for poor play that season. Morris played left tackle for a while, but the Chiefs were eventually forced to move left guard Joe Thuney to tackle. That plan worked until Super Bowl LIX, where the Chiefs’ tackles got demolished by the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Chiefs addressed left tackle again in the 2025 NFL Draft with Josh Simmons and signed Jaylon Moore to be the swing tackle. Simmons looked like an instant hit, but missed time throughout his first season for multiple reasons. Moore never supplanted Taylor when healthy.
Now, going into 2026, the Chiefs released Taylor and didn’t do anything significant in the offseason to address the position, leaving Simmons and Moore as the presumptive starters.
The question is now about how well they will perform in 2026.
Will Kansas City finally have stable tackle play?
Will both stay healthy?
Do the Chiefs have enough depth at tackle?
Let’s dive into Simmons and Moore individually, then into the depth:
Josh Simmons
As a rookie, Simmons flashed All-Pro upside. There were questions about how athletic Simmons would be after tearing his patellar tendon in college, but that proved to be no issue.
Simmons showed elite explosiveness and agility in space. He was one of the best pass-protecting tackles in the NFL as a rookie. He also showed flashes of being a weapon in the run game. Simmons is best in space in the run game, but also has impressive power for a tackle on the slender side.
The only issue with Simmons going into this season is his availability. Unfortunately, it’s a real concern. After the knee injury at Ohio State in 2024, Simmons missed four of his first nine NFL games due to personal reasons, so hopefully that was just an outlier. He dislocated and fractured his wrist in Week 13 and didn’t finish the season.
The good news is that Simmons didn’t have any complications or additional damage to his knee, so hopefully his missed time in 2025 was not an indicator of the future. Kansas City needs Simmons to stay healthy for the majority of the season. He’s one of the team’s most essential players. Until he does stay healthy for a full season, it’s a fair question.
Jaylon Moore
The bigger question at the offensive tackle position is about Moore.
Moore is entering his sixth season in the NFL at age 28, yet still hasn’t started more than six games in a season. Moore has also never been named a starter going into a season. The Chiefs are making a big gamble that Moore can play well enough to start an entire season.
Moore only played 427 snaps last year, and his tape was similar to what he showed as an understudy with the San Francisco 49ers. Moore is a good run blocker, particularly on zone concepts on the backside. He’s a physical player who can create space in the run game.
Where Moore struggles is moving in pass protection. His foot speed and agility can be exposed in space. He also doesn’t have much experience with true pass sets. With the 49ers, Moore played in a bootleg-centric pass offense, where the tackles were insulated with moving pockets and play action. Kansas City will put Moore in space more frequently.
Can Moore hold up for a full season? Even if he does, will it be good enough? Or does he get exposed over a long sample of games? It was surprising to see no real insurance added behind Moore, and it puts even more pressure on him to play well.
Depth
Behind Moore and Simmons, there are three candidates for the swing tackle position: Esa Pole, Chu Godrick, and rookie tryout signing Kahlil Benson.
Pole and Godrick had opportunities to start at the end of last season. Between them, Pole looked the best. Pole is a limited athlete who isn’t great in space, but he is big and moves people in the run game, while Godrick didn’t look close to earning meaningful snaps.
Benson is a surprisingly undrafted rookie from Indiana based on his film. He’s another big tackle with length, but he is much more athletic than Pole is. Benson is a stout player who needs to improve his pass sets in space. Benson tends to lunge and not protect his corner well. When he gets a grip on someone, he can shut down a rusher, but he needs to avoid giving up disastrous pressures.
If recent history about the Chiefs’ tackles tells us anything, it’s that one of these three players will have to play at some point. If that occurs, which of the three will it be?
Are they good enough to be a swing tackle, or do the Chiefs need to make an addition before the season? Backup tackle battles aren’t the most interesting training camp storylines, but I’m going to monitor them because they end up being important in Kansas City.
