Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes share their thoughts on Taylor Swift’s latest appearance on the New Heights podcast to promote her upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl. By Emily Curiel
The words initially expressed uncertainty, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid posturing as though a coin-toss decision awaited in the Pacific Northwest.
He would grow slightly more specific in response to a couple of follow-up questions, but in the end, we’ll have to fill in the important blank ourselves for the Chiefs’ second preseason game Friday in Seattle:
Patrick Mahomes isn’t in the plans.
That’s the headline news — Mahomes won’t play when the Chiefs visit the Seahawks, a departure from Reid’s typical plan to increase the volume in a penultimate preseason game.
But, come on, these preseason games were never about what the Chiefs need to see from Mahomes, or the handful of other veterans who are likely to sit out. It’s about the players the Chiefs do need to evaluate, and I’m not referencing the 53-man roster bubble.
This year, and maybe it’s an exception, I’m referring to two solidified starters who could sway the success of this Chiefs season: Josh Simmons and Kingsley Suamataia.
The Chiefs, and the rest of us along with them, have spent training camp evaluating Simmons (at left tackle) and Suamataia (at left guard) more closely than any other players in St. Joseph.
That shouldn’t stop now.
Even if Mahomes and other starters sit out Friday, Reid ought to feel compelled to continue the evaluation of the left side of the team’s offensive line. (And I think he will, by the way.) It’s the side that prevented Mahomes the fullest opportunity the last time he was on the field, in Super Bowl LIX, and even after a total overhaul, the side that still has its share of questions.
Suamataia is new to left guard. Simmons, a rookie, is new to the NFL altogether.
The reviews on Simmons have been deservedly positive. He looks the part in camp, rarely losing one-on-one battles. The job is more than one-on-one battles, of course, and seeing some twists, stunts and blitzes — if Seattle would be so kind — would provide a look at some things he’ll see in the regular season.
Providing blindside protection is still a remarkably difficult prospect for a rookie, and blindside protection for a team locked on prime-time TV is a remarkably pressure-filled position for any player, rookie or otherwise.
Although Simmons impressed in his preseason debut a week ago against the Cardinals, for example, some outside the organization pointed out that his pre-snap stance might have provided clues into whether the Chiefs were calling a run or pass play.
I asked Reid earlier this week about that possibility.
“You always look at that,” he said. “I mean, you look at that for every position, quarterback included. You want to make sure you’re not giving anything away, and that’s a battle. And these guys, we train them that way so they can evaluate themselves too.”
Look, for a rookie left tackle, you’d rather be analyzing whether pre-snap tells are a flaw than, say, pass protection. It’s a finer detail, and a more correctable detail.
But it’s also a reminder that this isn’t perfect, won’t be perfect, for a rookie, and that the finer points matter. And what better time to fine-tune them than preseason, whether it’s in front of Patrick Mahomes or backup QB Gardner Minshew?
Simmons needs to play.
Suamataia needs the reps even more. He has been up-and-down in camp and got pushed off his stance by a linebacker in the preseason opener. That clip pops, though failure is part of the job, and one snap is not the end-all, be-all.
But the response to failure is precisely what prompted Suamataia’s downfall a year ago.
The Chiefs played Suamataia in limited preseason snaps last year, convinced he was the answer at left tackle, only to bench him in Week 2 after a disastrous showing against the Bengals. The performance wasn’t the most alarming part that Sunday afternoon. It was the response to it.
Suamataia just plain abandoned his technique midway through that game, a form of panic mode taking over.
That’s where an uncomfortable snap could actually work to his advantage. The Chiefs get an early opportunity — in the preseason — to see how he responds to the guarantee of failure.
Which is one more reason they should give him an extended run Friday — and again next week, when the Chiefs return home to face the Bears at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in their preseason finale.
They have to make sure he’s the right guy for the job — to make more sure than they did a year ago, because they’ve better positioned themselves for an alternative, should they need one. They’re not preparing for that scenario, to be clear, but the best time to discover whether they need to reconsider things?
It’s now.