On Sunday morning, more than 12 hours before kickoff between the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks on “Sunday Night Football,” ESPN released a significant report about left tackle Josh Simmons (back) days after the 2025 first-round pick was placed on the Reserve/Injured list.
According to ESPN’s Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport, on Wednesday, Simmons “was told to leave” a team meeting by head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The report says Simmons “was sitting with his feet up”
during the meeting with offensive personnel, prompting Reid to ask him to put his feet down. Simmons “pushed back” and cited back and hip aches as his defense. Apparently, this exchange “disrupted” the meeting enough for both Reid and Mahomes to direct Simmons to leave in order to receive treatment for the pain he was experiencing.
Simmons “apologized to Reid and team leadership” by acknowledging that he could have handled it better, according to the sources.
On Wednesday, he did not participate in practice after the incident at the meeting. The team cited personal reasons, and Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance Rick Burkholder shared insight on what Simmons spent Wednesday doing: talking with his representation about how to proceed.
“After discussion with Josh yesterday, we gave him some time to talk with his family and representatives to investigate next steps as he goes through this process, and that’s why he was listed as both personal and with the back injury… he took the day off to get with his people.”
“It was decided and agreed upon by everybody — his people, his agent, him, myself, Andy, and Veach — that he should be placed on IR to give him more time to return to full function. He’ll continue with the rehab process with the goal of returning to play at the high level that he achieved in the past.”
Just last week, Reid described Simmons’ return to play as a “ramp-up” period. After Wednesday’s incident, he was suddenly shut down. If the IR placement was all about rehabilitation “plateauing,” it’s just a coincidence that it hit a standstill the day he got into a disruptive back-and-forth with his head coach and quarterback?
ESPN says “multiple sources” who witnessed the interaction shared the information, which is rare for the buttoned-up Chiefs. How did this information reach insiders when we rarely hear anything from Kansas City? It feels intentional, like members of the organization want to leave Chiefs Kingdom with a bad taste about Simmons instead of simply continuing with the excuse of a hard-to-navigate back injury.
Nothing about this saga has been positive for Simmons’ availability this season or his future as the franchise’s left tackle. However, before Sunday morning, it was easy to chalk it up to his fragility, a known risk when the franchise drafted him out of Ohio State in 2025. Now, fans will question Simmons’ character because it sounds like the Chiefs already are.
