The Kansas City Chiefs surprisingly lost their season opener 27-21 to the Los Angeles Chargers on Friday night. Entering the game, Chiefs Kingdom was keeping a close eye on how their revamped offensive line would hold up. While the offensive line performed well in the first half, Kansas City’s offense struggled to sustain drives early.
Despite the Chiefs’ offense getting rolling in the second half, it wasn’t enough to overcome their first-half struggles. That said, one member of Kansas City’s offensive line was still a glaring weakness.
Veteran right tackle Jawaan Taylor stuck out like a sore thumb. After such a poor performance, Taylor could lose his starting spot come Week 2.
Chiefs OT Jawaan Taylor Could Lose Starting Job after Poor Week 1 Performance
One thing that has plagued Taylor throughout his career has been penalties. Since joining the Chiefs in 2023, he has been penalized 37 times, according to PFF. Many of these penalties have put the Chiefs behind the chains, and some have even ruined drives.
On Friday night, it was no different. In their loss to the Chargers, the 27-year-old committed four penalties, three holding and one false start. In previous years, Kansas City’s offense and Chiefs Kingdom would have had no choice but to put up with this type of play.
However, this year it’s a different story. This offseason, the Chiefs signed left tackle Jaylon Moore to a two-year $30 million contract. While most believed he was the incumbent starter, Kansas City drafted Ohio State OT Josh Simmons, who recovered from his torn patellar tendon quicker than most anticipated.
With Simmons getting back on the field quicker than expected, Moore lost his starting job. As a result, the Chiefs were rotating him in at every offensive line position besides center at training camp. Be that as it may, he mostly split reps with Taylor, which may have been the first sign a move like this was coming.
Still, benching Taylor would be a massive move by the Chiefs’ front office. The 27-year-old has a salary of $19.5 million this season. So, benching a player who takes up a decent amount of cap space, no matter how much he hurts the team, is rarely ever done.
Nevertheless, it may be the best course of action for the Chiefs’ offense to succeed in 2025. It will be interesting to see if head coach Andy Reid makes the switch heading into their Super Bowl rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles next week.
