In terms of their 2024 win rate, the Kansas City Chiefs romped the regular season with an impressive 15-2 record. But look a little closer and everything was not well in the Chiefs kingdom.
Despite racking up 15 wins, quarterback Patrick Mahomes had little protection from his defensive line and was sacked a career-high 36 times across his 16 appearances. For context, his previous high was 28.
The Chiefs needed to reinforce their options ahead of the 2025 season and they have confirmed the signing of a key piece. Kansas City used their first round pick at this year’s draft on Josh Simmonsan offensive tackle from Ohio State.
The 22-year-old starred with the Buckeyes but suffered a serious knee injury in October 2024, ruling him out for the remainder of his college career. He impressed at NFL Combine Day and is expected to become a key player for the Chiefs.
Last month Chiefs head coach Andy Reid revealed that he’d spoken to the medical team about Simmons’ recovery and had positive news for Chiefs fans: “Rick Burkholder (Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance) has done a bunch of work on him. He’s in a good place…It’s healed well.“
Reid continued: “He’s gone through all the re-checks, and we’ll just see where it goes from there.”
Simmons’ college record suggests that he could help to provide Mahomes with the sort of protection that he needs if the Chiefs are going to make a run at another championship. At the start of his injury-curtailed 2024 season, Simmons did not allow a single hit or sack across 158 pass-blocking snaps with Ohio.
In fact, across the whole 2023 season the 6ft 5in Simmons allowed only one sack on his quarterback. That came across 443 pass-blocking snaps.
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