For the Rams specifically it may just be philosophical.

As a matter of course, Les Snead just doesn't use the franchise tag. With Trumaine Johnson, he was undervalued on the tag vs. the market.

LeMarcus Joyner was a S on the tag and those are typically cheaper.

A $25 million cap hold for a good, not elite, OT doesn't seem to be Snead's MO. He's just not someone that's ever been very aggressive with the franchise tag.

Second half when they had fallen way behind and it was pouring snow sure, again, pass rushers are never going to dominate in a snow storm.

The Rams have never been hesitant to pay up for guys they love especially OL. We'll see what they offer him.

I'd imagine the ball was coming out fast.

Again, what? 19 drop backs to 10 runs in the first half.

Wonder if it might be similar to LJ Sneed, who had a knee problem and Chiefs knew it better than anyone. Titans ended up eating a bag of shit this year with Sneed's knee problem and a big money contract. So does this Jackson fellow potentially have some injury stuff going on that the Rams know and we don't know? LJ Sneed played at a very high level through his knee problem in KC, just long enough to get his big money deal in Nashville.

It goes a lot deeper than just run or pass.

One offense almost never asks the LT to vertical set, the other wants it almost exclusively and with as little help as possible.

I guess the way I look at Jackson is best case scenario in this type of system, he's OBJr.

Not most likely, but best case.

Then McVay deserves a lot of credit. Andy should try to change how he handles the LT spot if it's gonna be a weakness on the team every year. Give the dude some help.

LMAO Right? The argument against Jackson makes Reid look a bit incompetent. If other top offenses are so much easier on the OT then maybe it's time to tweak the system just a tad.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🚨 ONE TO WATCH 🚨<br><br>According to ESPN, Los Angeles Rams do not plan to franchise tag left tackle Alaric Jackson.<br><br>Jackson is steady as both a run-blocker and pass-protector. His 22 QB pressures allowed in 2024 matched the likes of Dion Dawkins.<br><br>He is projected to land $16…</p>&mdash; Chiefs Blitz (@ChiefsBlitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChiefsBlitz/status/1892966824385429873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I'm in agreement with you guys. I've said for a couple weeks no matter who LT is, Andy needs to evolve with the times. Tackle play sucks compared to the days when he first built his offenses.

But I'm not going to hold my breath.

I’d rather draft a LT. I feel like we have a unique opportunity to get a top 15 talent (maybe top 10) in Josh Simmons and he wouldn’t be available if wasn’t injured. If his medical is clean, I’d trade up 10 spots and get him. We don’t normally have the opportunity to draft a LT with his talent. Simmons can move. He has great feet and he’s also physical. Pair Simmons with a vet and move forward.

https://youtu.be/WBM6VJvyens?si=QZ9YNZPdhJjnZU8U

https://youtu.be/WBM6VJvyens?si=QZ9YNZPdhJjnZU8U

Exactly. If you have to have a All Pro LT just to get "good" results its not the player its the scheme. That falls on the coaches.

I don't think people understand the argument.

Of course Andy can get good results with Jackson. He did it with OBJ with much less to work with in terms of weapons. That's not the point. The question is whether it's worth the money, because even though McVay and company can make it work with Jackson, they aren't rushing to pay up for him either.

If we have to change the offense and constantly give him help, is it worth paying starting LT money?

Even if he's good enough to get us back to being a top 5 offense, the same people screaming to pay Jackson will be furious if he's a disappointment in terms of what we pay if keeps us from being the best offense in the NFL.

The question comes down to ... if you could build with Orlando Brown Jr. 3 years ago at $25M/year, what is it worth to build around a similar (and possibly less limited athletically) player?

I can see a scenario where the Chiefs decide it's worth the price, even if he isn't a made-in-the-lab fit for what they've traditionally done at LT.

Exactly. I'm not against signing Jackson by any means, just trying to steel man the argument against him.

I dunno, apparently it's impossible to ever find an elite LT ever again with Mahomes at QB since we'll never draft high enough so might be time to tweak the offense to fit that reality.

I think the idea with the draft is to get a guy like Jackson without having to pay starting LT money.

A guy like that on a rookie deal is a huge + whereas paying a guy like that could hold you back a bit.

Josh Simmons could be an elite LT. He has the traits.

His agent says he will be ready for training camp. He ain't falling far enough to be in range.

They haven't been able to find even that baseline of play in the draft for a little while. Niang, Morris, and Suamataia are all not it to this point in their careers, and if the talking heads locally are to be believed they're already gearing towards Suamataia shifting inside.

Nah. Can't trade up. It's impossibru.

Elite left tackle taken outside the top 10 is what, a once every five years proposition in the modern era?

Going to be hard for KC. Only shot is luck or a guy like Simmons dropping due to injury, or a Tunsil who dropped over a stupid video.

We don't need elite though.

Sounds like we DO though. Since the Chiefs offensive system is so damn hard on the OTs and all.

The issue isn't trading up.

The issue is putting all your eggs into that basket as if you're assured to get that player.

You'd have to bandaid LT just in case the plan fails with someone like DJ Humphries who you've been adamantly against keeping.

He’s very raw, and would not be able to start practicing until training camp due to his injury recovery.

To win? No. To not risk getting Patrick killed? Yeah you need elite if Andy isn't going to adapt.

Even OBJ nearly cost us LVII with the ankle sprain.

I'm not against bandaiding at all. I'm against bandaiding with a completely useless broke dick. That's just a complete waste of time.

Andy Reid would've rather played Suamataia over Humphries in the Super Bowl. That's how ****ing useless he is.

He’s too stubborn and that’s what separates him and Belichick.

When Bill dominated teams with a 3-4 defense, teams tried copying it. Bill saw this and pivoted to a 4-3. Teams were drafting all of the 3-4 DL early which meant the traditional 4-3 DE’s would fall to him. Same in FA. That’s what made him outsmart everybody.

Andy has got to put his pride away and take advantage. Perfect example is the Broncos. They had the best pass rushing unit in football leading the league in sacks and pressures. Their one flaw was undersized DL. Bonitto and Cooper were 250 lbs and Zack Allen/John-Franklin Myers were 280 lbs.

The Bills recognized that huge disparity in size and just bullied the **** out of them running the ball down their throat and moving their smaller DL at will at will all day.

We are too one dimensional. That’s a major part of our asswhooping. These teams do not respect our run game at all. They know Andy doesn’t want to do it and they know we aren’t good at it, so they pin their ears back and rush the same as if they have a lead.
Andy watching our QB and OL struggle badly immediately and not even bothering to run the ball until the 12th offensive play of the game is full proof of this.

Not saying we should convert to a run first offense by any means, but we need to be 2 dimensional. We need to be able to run the ball well when needed which will open up play action.

We also need to help our QB. We can’t keep putting everything on him with little help.

Yes, you’d definitely need a veteran tackle for year 1 but I really want a long term LT that can protect Mahomes for the rest of his career. Pat needs to trust his oline. He plays so much better when he’s not anxious and having continuity at LT is critical. I feel like we are lucky to have a chance at Simmons around 20. Moving up to that position won’t cost us too much. Can you imagine Mahomes with a great LT for the next decade?

Hell we were the best offense in 2022 and people were still pissy with OBJ’s performance

LMAO Well, yeah, because he was objectively bad and has only gotten worse and worse as time goes on.

Drafting Simmons would require signing Tyron Smith/similar veteran LT as a veteran stopgap.

Yes, I’d sign a cheap vet like that and draft Simmons.

How do know this?

No it wouldn’t. Rosenhaus already said he’d be a full go by camp. If you’re trading assets to move up for him he’s damn well starting week 1. You don’t move up for a project.

Well for one, you don’t have to run the ball to be successful with play action.

But second and more importantly, we have Patrick Mahomes. We need to throw the ball…..a lot.

So figure out what he needs to get comfortable in the pocket and not freak out.

We’re all tap dancing around the fact that we seemingly need all this help for our elite qb to play at an elite level being an issue

If the qb doesn’t want all that put on him, he’s gonna need to take less money so we can go buy more weapons I guess

LMAO Again, who the **** has said Mahomes has to have an absolutely stacked roster to be effective? We just need his tools to not be completely ****ing useless like certain aspects have been in 23 and 24.

Have you watched Simmons play? The guy can move and he has a good punch. He uses his hands well. Simmons is less of a project than any LT that we will ever get an opportunity to draft. He has the talent. With your view, we are never drafting a LT in the first round bc elite LTs don’t fall that far in the draft. This is a rare opportunity to draft a LT with elite top 10 traits. But no, I wouldn’t anticipate him starting week 1. He might be ready by mid season. And I’d give up him starting immediately to have a chance at Simmons starting at LT for the next decade. We really need to be our best by the playoffs anyway.

He had an mvp season with obj and Wylie as his tackles and you’re saying this past year or two was substantially worse than that.

It’s an opinion for sure

The eagles defenders were talking about Pat the way CP talks about Lamar Jackson

Ah, so you're just being a disingenuous little bundle of sticks. Got it.

You said “completely useless”

So that’s worst in the league territory. No?

Hello? Tom Brady needed elite protection to be the best all time. The patriots invested heavily in their oline and got cheap free agents at WR & RB. They always prioritized protecting Brady. Just bc Mahomes needs a good oline doesn’t mean that he is not elite. Or maybe I misunderstood your point? Surely you aren’t saying that Mahomes isn’t elite bc he needs protection?

Our WR room in 2023 and LT rotations in 2024 were absolutely worst on the league territory.

Or the team needs to do what other teams are doing. Void Years to stack the roster. Fighting with one arm tied behind your back. Other teams pay their QB's big money, big money receivers, big money RB's, big money OL, big money defense. Void Years all over the place. KC is damn near last in the league on Void Year usage.

The way the Chiefs handle that is what will allow them to be contenders for the entirety of Mahomes career as a Chief.

Your SB window with Jalen Hurts isn't 10 years like it is with Mahomes.

It's absolutely hilarious that the Chiefs are in the AFCCG at worst every year and you people act like they're just wasting prime Mahomes years being cheap. That is 100% not the case, and it's just today's narrative because of the Eagles success.

Why would a defense honor the run if they know you won't run? This is silly.

I dunno, we'll see how it goes. Philly fans say Roseman has been doing this crazy stuff for 10+ years and it has never really caught up with them.

I honestly don't even think it really caught up to the Saints or Bucs very much either. They both still have a lot of the same players on their roster, when one might expect them to be in such trouble with the salary cap that they would need to totally wipe out the roster.

How did they invest heavily? It was a bunch of players from 1st rounders to undrafted players that they coached up and played. And then Tom made their jobs easier because he played within the scheme and timing off the offense, had elite pocket presence and ability to read defenses so the ball was out before any pressure got there. His last Superbowl there his line was a converter RT that they used at LT, a rookie 4th rounder in Thuney, an undrafted 4th year center, 4th year 4th round guard, and a 8th year 5th round RT.

Nothing we can't do. We just need to coach players up better and Mahomes needs to start making their jobs easier.

Dude, they just paid Hurts like a couple years ago. Pretty sure the big cap years haven't even begun. Maybe stop taking anything Eagles fans say as gospel? Of course they want to believe they can do that forever. That's not reality though.

And how about the earlier part of Brady's career? I found a 10+ year stretch with the same dude at Left Tackle. Followed by another 6 year stretch with the next guy in that spot. Mahomes has had 6 different LT's in the last 3 years. Even with that instability, you have 2 rings and a conference title. Pretty damn good in this circumstance.

Also, did you really just say it hasn't caught up with the Saints?

:facepalm:

It's been an absolute disaster, but sure, hasn't caught up with them.

This is so dumb man. 2022 and 2023 were not loaded offenses and we won back-to-back SB’s based in large part bc of clutch play from Mahomes.

This year was the worst roster he’s ever had. Rice/Hollywood/Pacheco out 90% of season, Justin Watson 2nd in WR snaps, old washed players making up the rest. We didn’t have a true LT until Humphries was signed and he played one game.

We were first on 3rd down offense, 9th in points per drive and had 7 game-winning drives. This team was absolute ass on offense for the most part and begged Mahomes to bail them out of it.

This years team doesn’t even make the playoffs with Alex Smith starting. Mahomes carried these ****ing bums until we played a team that was so stacked that it was impossible

Well yeah, if you coach young players up, you get long term stability at a position.

The math is the math. Studies whatever you wanna call it

All the data says it

2022 was one of the historically best overall offenses in history. Was it that much more talented than the last 2?

I would say Belichick's OL coach Scarnecchia was a lot better than Andy Heck. Coach Reid isn't gonna dump Coach Heck. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence with a replacement. It kind of falls on Veach to find a pretty solid player that won't need A+++ quality coaching like what Scarnecchia did in New England.

They are paying their players the same as the Chiefs, just at different times. They have paid a league leading $60+million of dead cap to players who do not play for them anymore.

They were able to have success with void years bc they traded Carson Wentz for assets that were used to get AJ Brown, Devonta Smith, Jalen Carter and Cooper DeJean.

So when you say you want to implement the Eagles plan, that means you want to trade Mahomes for assets like the Eagles did with Wentz

Andy heck takes a lot of shit for being one of the better ol coaches in the league

Well said. Mahomes has had issues but you’re right. Any qb would have had problems with the state or the availability of the offensive roster.

This worked against a Seahawks team that played man coverage and blitzed. The Eagles played zone the entire game and did not blitz one time. Not at all the same defense. That defense is designed to defend what Tom Brady did to the Seahawks.

No QB is having success when teams can get consistent historic pressure only rushing 4. We saw the Giants beat the shit out of Tom Brady in 2 SB’s utilizing that scheme and rarely blitzing.

Horseshit. Show me.

Heck, Brady still needed a goal line stand by Belichick's defense to win that game. Biggest mistake of Pete Carroll & Russell Wilson's careers. LOL

To me it's because they went into last season first game w/ Kingsley a rook as starter and Morris as backup thinking they were good. NFL showed they were NOT good by end of the second game. This failure plagued the season and cost the SB ultimately. Veach/Reid definitely deserve blame with this as well, quality control at LT was a huge issue and a blind spot

They don't honor the run if you don't run at all.

But people overstate the amount of times you have to run in order to get them to honor it. It's more along the lines of 12-15 times/gm.

They also presume a linear relationship that doesn't seem to exist -- i.e. a team that runs the ball 25 times is going to have greater success with play-fakes because teams honor the run MORE than a team that runs it 15 times.

That linear relationship also doesn't appear to exist.

Tendencies matter more than raw numbers. Perhaps that's where we're struggling -- maybe we have obvious tendencies in certain down/distance situations that opposing DCs have picked up on.

But as far as us needing to run the ball more to establish the play action passing game or something like that? Not really - we run it enough based on any real research done on the matter.

We need OT and WR help this offseason and Simmons is a stud that could slip to 10-15 because of injury, otherwise top 5 talent..BUT yes still raw.

Phins have #13 pick!

Phins get:
2025, 2026 ans 2027 1st round picks!

Chiefs get:
Tyreek
Armstead
#13-Draft Simmons

Tyreek comes home!

Armstead is starter at LT while both Simmons and Kingsley develop! IF Armstead goes down Simmons/Kingsley can step in.

The goal will be for Simmons to replace Armstead and Kingsley replace Taylor in a year or two.

I'm not presuming anything like that.

But if you never run, or never run it in THIS situation, and I'm, say the MLB, I'm not going bite on that fake, I'm looking for the slot or TE coming across.

That's a terrible trade for the Dolphins. Why would they do that?

Also not great for KC as we can't really afford those cap numbers.

The offense in 2022 had a variety of ways they could beat you. Kelce was still Kelce, 2022 Juju would be WR1 for this team the last 2 years (2024 post Rice injury) and McKinnon had 9 TD’s and over 500 yards. MVS was even credible with nearly 700 yards before he forgot how to catch a year later. OL was credible too despite some issues at times.

How could you possibly look at this years offense post Rice injury and think it’s anything close to the same?

It also was a zag in terms of offensive approach and scheme.

Kansas City was still defended with two deep shells, like it was when Hill was here, but the offense shifted into killing teams underneath and with YAC. It became a really efficient, consistent,
Inevitable machine.

Once teams came out of the shell and started playing more man coverage and single high against that, it squeezed off the YAC yardage. Pair that with Kelce finally losing a step and talent step backs at WR, and you’ve got what happened the last two years.

I have zero interest in Tyreek. Zero. In fact I think he would destroy this team.

I applaud your creativity! I’m a bit surprised no one’s calling for Tyreek's return. I’d have him back if we can put a muzzle on him. IF that deal were possible, I’d consider it, but I think you’re probably undervaluing that trade. Maaaybe two 1sts gets us to 13, maaaybe. Doesn’t exactly align with the draft value chart but I think teams value 1st rounders a bit differently. But a single 1st for Tyreek? I don’t see that working, not to mention you want Armstead as well. Miami needs OL just as bad or worse than we do, why wouldn’t they just take Simmons themselves and keep Tyreek? Say they’d accept three 1sts for Tyreek and Simmons, which seems more likely to me, that’s a hefty price to pay for us and fans would be split on that decision but I’d be entertain your proposal and pray it works out lol

50:50 chance lol he dumb as rocks.

Tyreek gives us nothing we don't already have with Worthy and Rice. Nothing.

Compare Worthy and Tyreek's rookie seasons. Not even close.

Worthy will be in the Pro Bowl next season.

The answer to this question is and has always been left tackle.

Left tackle play and tight end play was much worse in 2024 compared to 2022. And that is the difference.

How about 2 firsts + tag and trade Trey Smith and maybe some change for Simmons and Tyreek? But that still doesn’t feel right to me for either side.

Tough trade proposal you’ve cooked up I think.

Truth. We don’t need him, we have the best WR core now that we’ve had in years assuming we can bring back our vet FAs which I don’t think we can. Tyreek would either eat up all the targets from Rice and Worthy or not be worth his contract.