The defending Super Bowl champions Chiefs have a new pair of bookends on the offensive line. One of the additions, Jawaan Taylor, was made for the opportunity.
Including last season's three-game postseason run, the Kansas City Chiefs played a total of 20 contests. The team's starting tackles were Orlando Brown Jr. on the left side and Andrew Wylie on the right side. The former is now a member of the Cincinnati Bengals, the latter is now with the Washington Commanders.
Head coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach wasted little time addressing the left tackle spot, inking former Jacksonville Jaguars standout Jawaan Taylor early in free agency. However, there was suddenly a more seasoned veteran on the market as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers parted with Donovan Smith. The Chiefs scooped him up and it enabled Taylor to stay at his more familiar right tackle slot.
As for the former Jaguars' blocker, it was Kansas City, here I come!
Chiefs: Jawaan Taylor explains major free agency move to Kansas City
"I just wanted to embrace change," explained Taylor (via ESPN's Adam Teicher). "I never lived outside of Florida ever in my life. To have the opportunity to come and try something new and be (in) a great organization, I was all for it."
It appears that the head coach is quite happy with his new tackles and their work to date.
"They're smart guys," said Reid (via Teicher). "They're taking good sets and doing the things that they're supposed to do and you can tell that they've played before by how they're handling themselves and digging in on the new protections and the snap counting itself and all those things. They're making sure they're ready once we get up to training camp."
Taylor spoke about his preparation as well.
"I'm really just soaking in everything I can soak in from (offensive line) coach (Andy) Heck, just tweaking and adjusting different things with my game to make me better.
"Anything I can do to do that I can soak it in. Just taking notes in meetings, but also just learning the system, learning how they like things done around here and just doing my part."
A public service reminder. The NFL preseason is less than a month away.
