The Kansas City Chiefs have become the most consistently dominant team in the NFL over the last few years. They have played in five consecutive AFC Championship games, winning three of them. In the Super Bowl over that span, they are 2-1.
In that one loss, what undid them was their offensive line. Patrick Mahomes is a magician with the football in his hands, but there is only so much he can do when the unit that is supposed to be blocking for him is incapable of performing its job at a high level. He was under siege most of the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which led to a 31-9 loss.
Since that point, the Chiefs have made a concerted effort to improve the offensive line. They have made numerous splashes in free agency while supplementing that spending with some selections in the NFL Draft.
It has resulted in Kansas City having arguably the best interior offensive line in the NFL. Over at ESPN, Jeremy Fowler has put together power rankings for every unit in the NFL based on votes submitted by executives, coaches and scouts.
For the interior offensive line power rankings, the Chiefs had all three of their players make the list. Leading the way is guard Joe Thuney, who landed in the No. 2 spot, behind only Zack Martin of the Dallas Cowboys.
“The Chiefs are loaded with offensive linemen, but Thuney is the most valuable because he rarely makes a mistake, savvy, doesn’t commit penalties, holds up in the run or the pass,” an AFC executive said. “Not an overwhelming athlete but just really good.”
Thuney came to Kansas City on a five-year, $80 million deal after that Super Bowl debacle from the New England Patriots. His pass block win rate of 98.9 led the NFL last season. Next on the list was center Creed Humphrey.
Humphrey was a second-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft out of Oklahoma and has become an anchor for the unit in the middle. Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles, who was ranked sixth, was the only center ahead of Humphrey, who came in at No. 8.
“He’s really not beholden to any system — you could put him in any offense, and he would thrive,” a Pro Bowl offensive player said. “It was good to see that [in 2022] he had to handle more, saw less three-man fronts with Tyreek Hill gone, and he handled it great.”
Last but not least, guard Trey Smith ended up on the honorable mentions list. The Chiefs are receiving incredible value with Smith, who was a sixth-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft out of Tennessee. He played nearly 1,000 snaps for a Super Bowl-winning team with a 95.9 pass-block win rate.
Powerful. He’s a top-10 player at his position,” a veteran Pro Bowl player said. “Only knock on him is what’s a knock for a lot of powerful guys: He tries to make the big splash hit, and that gets him off balance.”
This is a group that should remain dominant and potentially even improve in the coming years. Thuney is the elder statesman at 30 years old but Humphrey and Smith are both only 24. They should be stalwarts along the offensive line for a long time in Kansas City protecting Mahomes.
