After four seasons of shuffling options at the left tackle position, the Kansas City Chiefs finally feel that they have found their answer for years to come.

On Thursday night — after a one-spot trade-back with the Philadelphia Eagles — the Chiefs selected Ohio State left tackle Joshua Simmons with the No. 32 overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft.

Many draft pundits wondered how far Simmons would fall in the draft given the torn patellar injury he suffered in a game against the Oregon Ducks on October 12. Those same pundits agreed almost universally that without that injury, Kansas City would have been in no position to select him, as he would have gone in the top 10 selections.

Completing the medical due diligence

So with that in mind, the Chiefs’ personnel and medical staff got to work, meeting with him at the NFL Scouting Combine in March.

“Early on we got back from the combine, everyone knew of the patella tendon injury,” said general manager Brett Veach, speaking to local media members after Round 1. “Those injuries are obviously serious and they’re a six-to-seven month recovery, and I do remember early on (head athletic trainer and vice president) Rick [Burkholder] saying, ‘You know, this knee looks really good. You got a really good surgery and really like the way it looks,’ and I said, ‘Would it help if we brought him in a few weeks later just to get an update on that?’ He said, ‘Absolutely.’ We did that and he said, ‘Yeah, it looks great.’”

The Chiefs invited Simmons for a top-30 visit, where he established a relationship with offensive line coach Andy Heck. Kansas City also held multiple Zoom calls throughout the process to test his football IQ.

While Simmons intrigued many teams, he said that nobody showed more attention than Kansas City.

“A lot of [teams] were [interested], but nothing like the Chiefs,” said Simmons on a Zoom call with reporters. “There were teams reaching out a couple of days before, a few asked for my phone number the day before. But yeah, I had a Zoom meeting with the Chiefs and stuff like that. Nobody else really showed as much — at least to my knowledge — as much interest as the Kansas City Chiefs.”

After the injury in October — and knowing he would be a highly sought-after prospect — Simmons underwent surgery, quickly creating a detailed rehabilitation plan with renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who is based in Los Angeles.

“We knew what it was and the type of attention it was going to need,” said Simmons. “It’s a lot of eccentric work — getting that joint stiff, getting that range of motion. That all has to be attacked really, really early so you can kind of have that downhill snowball effect of getting your explosiveness back. Whether that’s with squats, single-leg stuff, running — obviously you’re gonna do kinetic chain. You have to do all that stuff early, that way you can do a lot more in a lot shorter time.”

On track for training camp

Fast forward six months, and Simmons says that his knee is already to the point where he is capable of squatting heavy weights and running sled drills. The Chiefs plan to be cautious with Simmons during rookie minicamp and organized team activities (OTAs), but hold firm belief that he will be ready when training camp opens.

Still, Simmons knows the work to meet that deadline is far from over.

“I still have to haul ass in recovery — and again, like I said — I’m at the Kansas City Chiefs. So there’s no time to take breaths. If anything, it’s where you gotta start forming it more than you ever have. So I’ll take a couple of days to just kind of take in that process and get that behind me, but then, right after that, you’re going into a really, really, really good football club.”

Barring health issues, KC has secured its left tackle of the future

Because the Chiefs have reached seven straight AFC title games, they draft near the bottom of Round 1 every single year — hardly ideal for landing a homegrown left tackle.

“It was one of those things where it was obviously a need. These guys are hard to get — and we talk about it all the time,” added Veach. “Left tackles don’t typically become free when free agency starts, and sometimes it takes one of these scenarios — an injury or something out of the ordinary — for a guy like this to fall.”

Veach added that in a backward way, Simmons’ misfortune is the only thing that allowed the Chiefs to acquire a player of his talent level.

“I think we only had 14 or 15 [first-round] guys,” revealed Veach. “He was in that weird landing space because prior to the injury, he would have been in that number count, but there was a little, ‘OK, there is going to be a rehab process there.’ But he was certainly a guy that made sense for us.”

Shortly before Kansas City turned in the card for Simmons, quarterback Patrick Mahomes posted a smiley-face emoji to his official X account.

Without really saying anything, the two-time NFL MVP said everything.

“He’s best player in the game,” noted Veach of Mahomes. “When Pat is upright, we have some talented weapons — and [we’re] obviously excited about Hollywood [Brown] and Rashee [Rice] and [Xavier] Worthy. [We’ve] just got to keep him in a groove and keep him clean. He’s our most valuable possession.”

Kansas City has its left tackle of the future — and based on its medical checks, perhaps even its left tackle of the right now.

Watching offensive linemen in St. Joseph just got way more interesting.