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.<\/p>\n
On Thursday night \u2014 after a one-spot trade-back with the Philadelphia Eagles \u2014 the Chiefs selected Ohio State left tackle Joshua Simmons with the No. 32 overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
So with that in mind, the Chiefs\u2019 personnel and medical staff got to work, meeting with him at the NFL Scouting Combine in March.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly on we got back from the combine, everyone knew of the patella tendon injury,\u201d said general manager Brett Veach, speaking to local media members after Round 1. \u201cThose injuries are obviously serious and they\u2019re a six-to-seven month recovery, and I do remember early on (head athletic trainer and vice president) Rick [Burkholder] saying, \u2018You know, this knee looks really good. You got a really good surgery and really like the way it looks,\u2019 and I said, \u2018Would it help if we brought him in a few weeks later just to get an update on that?\u2019 He said, \u2018Absolutely.\u2019 We did that and he said, \u2018Yeah, it looks great.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
While Simmons intrigued many teams, he said that nobody showed more attention than Kansas City.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of [teams] were [interested], but nothing like the Chiefs,\u201d said Simmons on a Zoom call with reporters. \u201cThere 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 \u2014 at least to my knowledge \u2014 as much interest as the Kansas City Chiefs.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the injury in October \u2014 and knowing he would be a highly sought-after prospect \u2014 Simmons underwent surgery, quickly creating a detailed rehabilitation plan with renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who is based in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew what it was and the type of attention it was going to need,\u201d said Simmons. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of eccentric work \u2014 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\u2019s with squats, single-leg stuff, running \u2014 obviously you\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Still, Simmons knows the work to meet that deadline is far from over.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have to haul ass in recovery \u2014 and again, like I said \u2014 I\u2019m at the Kansas City Chiefs. So there\u2019s no time to take breaths. If anything, it\u2019s where you gotta start forming it more than you ever have. So I\u2019ll take a couple of days to just kind of take in that process and get that behind me, but then, right after that, you\u2019re going into a really, really, really good football club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because the Chiefs have reached seven<\/em> straight AFC title games, they draft near the bottom of Round 1 every single year \u2014 hardly ideal for landing a homegrown left tackle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was one of those things where it was obviously a need. These guys are hard to get \u2014 and we talk about it all the time,\u201d added Veach. \u201cLeft tackles don\u2019t typically become free when free agency starts, and sometimes it takes one of these scenarios \u2014 an injury or something out of the ordinary \u2014 for a guy like this to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n Veach added that in a backward way, Simmons\u2019 misfortune is the only thing that allowed the Chiefs to acquire a player of his talent level.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we only had 14 or 15 [first-round] guys,\u201d revealed Veach. \u201cHe was in that weird landing space because prior to the injury, he would have been in that number count, but there was a little, \u2018OK, there is going to be a rehab process there.\u2019 But he was certainly a guy that made sense for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly before Kansas City turned in the card for Simmons, quarterback Patrick Mahomes posted a smiley-face emoji to his official X account.<\/p>\n Without really saying anything, the two-time NFL MVP said everything.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s best player in the game,\u201d noted Veach of Mahomes. \u201cWhen Pat is upright, we have some talented weapons \u2014 and [we\u2019re] obviously excited about Hollywood [Brown] and Rashee [Rice] and [Xavier] Worthy. [We\u2019ve] just got to keep him in a groove and keep him clean. He\u2019s our most valuable possession.\u201d<\/p>\n Kansas City has its left tackle of the future \u2014 and based on its medical checks, perhaps even its left tackle of the right now<\/em>.<\/p>\n Watching offensive linemen in St. Joseph just got way more interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Had Simmons never been injured, the Chiefs would have been in no position to select him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":50757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n