Eight-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick says what needs to be said about Chiefs' most significant problem in Super Bowl LIX
The Kansas City Chiefs have a personnel problem that has persisted all season long and was at the root of the Super Bowl LIX loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Eight-time Super Bowl champion head coach Bill Belichick recently appeared on the Let's Go! Podcast with Maxx Crosby, Peter King, and Jim Gray. He discussed the said season-long […]
The Kansas City Chiefs have a personnel problem that has persisted all season long and was at the root of the Super Bowl LIX loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Eight-time Super Bowl champion head coach Bill Belichick recently appeared on the Let's Go! Podcast with Maxx Crosby, Peter King, and Jim Gray. He discussed the said season-long problem that ultimately sunk the three-peat dream for Kansas City.
“For Kansas City this year, a good place to look is the left tackle situation," Belichick said. "Clearly, Andy (Reid) and Brett (Veach), the general manager, identified that as a problem. They took Kingsley (Suamataia) in the first or second round, whatever it was. They took him high as the second pick after (Xavier) Worthy. That didn’t work out, and then they played four offensive tackles, with their last offensive tackle at the end of the season in the playoffs being Joe Thuney, who’s really a guard. He’s never played tackle since he played it at NC State in college.”
Belichick is in a position to know all about Thuney's strengths and weaknesses, after all, he drafted him out of NC State with the New England Patriots back in the 2016 NFL draft.
Kansas City has struggled with left tackle since Eric Fisher tore his Achilles in the lead-up to Super Bowl LV. Since then, the team has struggled to find a solution. They started Orlando Brown Jr. for a few seasons, Donovan Smith in 2023, Kingsley Suamataia, Wanya Morris, D.J. Humphries, and Joe Thuney in 2024.
“They knew what the problem was," He continued. "They tried to address it. It didn’t work out with Kingsley, it didn’t work out with (Wanya) Morris. Then they (signed D.J. Humphries), that didn’t work out, and now they ended up playing a guard at tackle. You get up against some teams, and you can get by with that, but until you get up against the best teams or the best team, that wasn't a problem for them. It was a problem for them in the Super Bowl.”
The indictment here is that it was painfully apparent to those watching all season long that the Chiefs had a problem at left tackle. They couldn't find a solution with the personnel they had, so they patched the line together with Thuney playing out of position. The success through the three-game stretch in the regular season and the AFC divisional round and AFC Championship Game gave Kansas City a false sense of security that it could work in the biggest game of the season. But it didn't.
Andy Reid claimed he'd continued to rotate Thuney and Humphries at left tackle in practice, even in the weeks leading up to the big game. Yet when push came to shove, nothing was done to try and adjust during Super Bowl LIX when the problem reared its head again. When it comes to building this team up again in 2025, it all starts with finally figuring out the left tackle position.
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