In recent years, the Kansas City Chiefs have made a habit of investing in the offensive line in the NFL Draft. Protecting the game's most valuable asset makes a ton of sense, and we're seeing the results of the franchise keeping Patrick Mahomes safe early in the 2024 season.
The offensive tackle position, however, still has some questions to answer down the stretch. The left side, specifically, is far from cemented just a handful of games into the year. Rookie second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia has already been benched in favor of Wanya Morris, who lost the battle for the starting job during the summer.
Despite the unsure left tackle situation in Kansas City, a recent 2025 NFL mock draft seems more worried about the right side of the line. In a simulation for Sporting News, Vinnie Iyer sends LSU's Emery Jones to the Chiefs at the end of round one, albeit under odd circumstances.
"The Chiefs cannot continue with the Jawaan Taylor penalty dysfunction at right tackle in front of Patrick Mahomes," Iyer wrote. "Jones can clean that up with his pass-protection upside to go with natural run blocking to help Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith."
Emery Jones Jr. would help Chiefs, but not for those reasons
The issue here resides more with the logic than the player, and it isn't particularly close. First and foremost, Taylor has been proficient in pass protection this season and Kansas City is going to live with him through the penalty struggles. He isn't going anywhere right now. That's especially true given his contract situation for next year, as the 27-year-old is on the books for $20 million in guaranteed money and carries a $24.725M cap hit. The reigning Super Bowl champs would incur a dead cap hit of nearly $30M by cutting Taylor in the offseason, so it simply isn't going to happen. The nearest sensible cut date would be prior to the 2026 campaign.
Secondly, Smith might not be in Kansas City a year from now. The former sixth-round pick has outplayed his rookie deal by a mile and will have no shortage of suitors lining up in the spring. Should Smith enter free agency without an extension, the Chiefs figure to have a difficult time retaining him. While possible, it's far from a certainty.
Jones himself is a very fine prospect. Listed at 6-foot-6 and 315 pounds, he has the requisite size to thrive on Kansas City's offensive line and he's coming off a season that saw him finish as a finalist for the Joe Moore Offensive Line of the Year award. The Second-Team All-SEC man has just over 1,000 snaps of experience for the Tigers in the last two years, with almost all of it coming at right tackle. He's a long, strong and physical player who fits many offenses. With that said, his shortcomings seem to revolve around playing on an island and/or dealing with speed rushers. That, combined with questionable balance and no real or recent experience at left tackle, makes him less than a home run of a pick.
Widely regarded as a contender for the first round of next year's draft, Jones would undoubtedly help shore up the Chiefs' front five if available. That's for none of the reasons mentioned in the mock, though.
