Yes any injury presents risk… which affected his draft stock… but to argue that he’ll never be an effective player or recover from this injury… is directly disagreeing with the medical assessment of the Chiefs athletic trainer with 30+ years experience.

That’s a strange flex.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Several teams agree: Josh Simmons had best tape of any OT last year. And they aren&#39;t very concerned with recovery on the torn patella tendon. More of the concern is maturity/character. But he&#39;s going to the ideal, veteran-laden place.</p>&mdash; Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/JFowlerESPN/status/1915612949214908901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sure, the Bucs loss wasn't due to them having a better roster. If you recall, KC lost both of their All-Pro tackles during the season (one in the AFC Championship game). No team is equipped to deal with injuries concentrated in one area like that late in the season.

I will applaud the consistency of this board on this player.

Most people who didn’t want him are sticking to that.

Most that deferred to the Chiefs are staying with that.

Most that wanted him are celebrating it.

I get kinda annoyed when someone just finds a way to love or hate something.

If I'm reading what I can find on the net correctly, Simmons had a different type of surgery than you would normally see with a complete patellar tendon tear.

Just like all of the teams who passed on Trey Smith because of his medical records/history?

It’s also about where you are selecting a player in the draft.

Selecting in the top 10… like New England did with Will Campbell will make a team more risk averse than selecting at 32.

There was a national study on players who suffered this injury from 2009 to 2022 and it wasn’t good.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11806464/

Only 16% of players came back to start as many games as within 2 seasons after their injury as they did before injury.

Maybe Burkholder is right, but there’s overwhelming evidence in the other direction and it shouldn’t be hand-waived.

Not to mention 2 OL Covid opt outs and Osemele going down too.

I think there was even another guy who went down, but I’m blanking on who.

At minimum, the Chiefs lost 5 guys on the OL. You just can’t build for that kind of luck.

Nobody is concerned about the knee. They just all passed on him because of...character concerns? I haven't even heard about those. What the **** is that all about?

Do you think that Burkholder is unaware of that historical data?

I hated the idea of taking a RB in the 1st round.

We did it. I talked myself into it.

Just not doing that again.

If I'm proven wrong, I'm proven wrong -- I've been wrong before. But I'm not gonna doubt my gut anymore.

That's why the "Trust in Veach" stuff rings particularly hollow. Because more often than not when I have REALLY not liked a pick he's made, I've been right. And when I've absolutely loved a pick he's made, I've said it...and I've been right.

Where Veach absolutely kills me, something he does I can never ever do, is be right on a guy I simply don't know shit about. And he deserves all the credit in the world for that. Danna, Snead, Chenal, Allegretti (and I'm sure others I'm forgetting) -- those are all guys that were completely off my radar that were good picks. That's where he's been exceptional.

But I think people underestimate the hit rate of the 'drafturbators' when it comes to guys they have strong opinions on. A ton of us are pretty damn reliable on BOTH sides of this ledger.

We’re all happy Trey Smith worked out, but it’s not like the Chiefs just knew better than everyone else. They passed on him several times before pulling the trigger really late.

If the Chiefs knew Trey would work out, then it was very risky to pass on him so many times.

I think that pick sounded like the risk was minimal enough that late to take a chance.

This is a first round pick. The Chiefs absolutely have to be right on this.

Just further proof that we don't know what we don't know.

First we have to establish that there is a significant difference between the type of injuries and how they impact a player's career. If we can't agree on that, then we aren't going to be able to have any type of productive conversation.

Secondly, I understand you are trying to establish that if the Chiefs athletic trainer gave his blessing that we should have some faith. My counter argument is that there are teams in the NFL draft that passed on Simmons because their athletic trainers did not give their blessing.

It isn't really complicated, some people see the injury history of patellar tendon's and hate the data, that is fair. Some people see the upside of Simmons and scarcity of the position and think the gamble is justified. I can see both sides of the argument and they are both valid.

The "does he love football" stuff surfaced about a month ago.

A few folks mentioned it in the draft forum. I just threw it on top of the pile...