The Chiefs were just gifted a golden opportunity...

Pro Bowl left tackle with 140 career starts is sitting at home in the middle of November. His name is Taylor Decker and he asked the Lions back in March for his release and eight months later he still hasn't signed anywhere. And meanwhile, the Chiefs have an undrafted rookie playing left tackle and on Thursday their right tackle mispracticed for the second straight day. And today ESPN's Nate Taylor reported the Chiefs are still trying to figure out where last year's first round pick Josh Simmons is going to rehab. The Chiefs now have been gifted a golden opportunity surrounding Taylor Decker. We're going to break down the reports and why he's a very good fit, even a perfect fit for this team. So let's dive into Taylor Decker, because if he signs, he's not just a practice squad camp body. Taylor Decker was the 16th pick in the 2016 draft out of Ohio State, the same school as Josh Simmons. He played 10 seasons at left tackle in Detroit and started all 140 games he played, and he made his first Pro Bowl in 2024 at 31 years old. Last season, coming off shoulder surgery that spring, he still started 14 games, and pro football focus graded him at a 67.9, which is 39th out of 84 qualified tackles. Now, that's not the 2024 pro bowler that he was anymore, but it's a middle-of-the-pack starter, and the Chiefs don't have one of those healthy at either tackle spot right now. In February, he announced he was coming back for an 11th season, then the Lions asked him to take a pay cut on his three-year $60 million deal, and on March 6th, he asked for his release instead. Detroit saved $11.6 million on this year's cap by letting him go, and in turn, he walked away from a $14.9 million base salary this year rather than taking less, and he's been waiting on the right team ever since. So, does he actually fit in Kansas City? Let's dive into it. Best part for Kansas City is that he can play either side. You put him at left tackle and then Khalil Benson becomes depth or put him at right tackle until Jalen Moore's ankle heals. Either way, Mahomes gets a blocker with 140 starts instead of an undrafted rookie or backup. Now, right now, left tackle is Benson and he's been very, very good. But obviously, Danny at the ringer put it bluntly. He's doing a fine job run blocking, but his pass protection is a mess. I don't want to take shots at Benson because I think he's done a fantastic job given the expectations and given the scenario and I'm not even saying if they bring in Decker that he's going to be a guy who starts every single game going forward. Obviously if Jalen Moore is available he's going to play and maybe they keep Benson out there but having another guy available is absolutely crucial and there's no reason to not do it. Now, to be fair to this line, the offensive line has looked better lately. Mahomes has been sacked 11 times in 8 games, which is way down from the 47 total last season. But a lot of that is obviously Mahomes being great and not taking sacks, getting the ball out, and the tackles behind Benson and Moore have also barely played. Now, the catch for this is the money. SpotTrack had his market value at $42.5 million over two years back in the offseason. Kansas City has about $3.2 million in cap space. Now, the money is why nobody signed him at that price, and it's why a Humphreys-style deal is the only one that works here. A one-year deal for the rest of the season is the kind of offer a 33-year-old who has been home since March might take to chase a ring, especially when Kansas City is your team and Patrick Mahomes is your quarterback, could make him look very, very good. Kansas City, I think, needs him for a brutal stretch run coming up as well. Buffalo Thanksgiving week, then the Rams, then Cincinnati, then three road games in three weeks. But there are real doubts, too. He said that he needed eight steroid injections just to get through that 2025 season. And last December, he said, when this is done, I'm done. Then in April, Jason Longcombe Forrest said the Chiefs didn't seem as high on Decker as they were on Trent Williams. And even in May, the last word on sports named the Bears is a fit, as well as a bunch of other teams. But no visit and no offer has been reported at this point. We can even think back to May when the Bears were also named as a fit because obviously Decker spent years in Detroit with Ben Johnson, who's now the coach of the Bears. So there are teams who could be interested, but again, it all comes down to the money, but it's not just going to be the Chiefs. And that's why I think they should go after him sooner rather than later. So they can take the opportunity to actually improve their O-line proactively rather than reactively once all the good free agents are done. Now that the trade deadline is over, teams are really going to start picking up the search of a not only an offensive lineman, but wide receivers and free agents in general. But April was before Josh Simmons hurt his back and before Moore went down twice in a month and we've seen this exact problem with Kansas City before. Back in November of 2024, the Chiefs had no real left tackle so they signed D.J. Humphries off the street. It was a one-year deal worth about $2 million base salary with up to $4.5 million in potential bonuses. He hurt his hamstring in his very first game against the Chargers. Then Joe Agard ended up playing left tackle through most of the stretch run. Now, Humphreys didn't get back into the field until the last game of the regular season against Denver. Then in the Super Bowl, the Eagles sacked Mahomes six times, which, again, is exactly why the Chiefs went out and got Josh Simmons two months later. But he's been hurting. Who knows what's going on with him right now? But the lesson is. From 2024, that a late signing like this only works if the player is healthy enough to finish, and that is a real question, but I think it's one you can make notable here. There were rumblings that they were interested in a cornerback at the trade deadline. Rumblings came out today that they were interested in Garrett Wilson, offensive lineman, obviously wide receivers in Josh Downs, but go ahead and continue to work on this team. It doesn't have to be Decker, but I don't want Brett Veach to get complacent. Now surrounding Josh Simmons, the update today is that they don't really know what's going on. And he's the reason this conversation is even being had right now on this video because Simmons started eight games as a rookie last year and played well until a wrist injury ended his season. He was back off injured reserve in February and was penciled in as the starting left tackle for this season. Then a bulging disc in his lower back showed up late in training camp. He hasn't played a single snap this season, was placed on injured reserve with trainer Rick Burkholder saying that we feel he's plateaued. And then that same week, there was rumblings about the Infamous now locker room debacle between Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Simmons. Now, a few days ago, Reid was asked about him and said, yeah, he's doing good. But then today we got an update saying from Nate Taylor that he was asked this morning whether Simmons will play in Arizona next week. And his answer was that he couldn't even get an honest answer to a question about him and added that the last thing he heard was that Simmons was gonna talk to his family about the next steps of the rehab. Then minutes later, there's been some just crazy stuff. There was pushback from former right tackles. It's wild right now, but it does seem that Josh Simmons may be trending towards somewhat of a return, but we don't know when he's going to be back, and I think even if he is back and Benson's playing well, whatever you want to kind of, or Jalen Moore is healthy, getting a guy like Decker just in as a veteran could make some sense. Let's dive into today's updates from practice. So Thursday's injury report, it was the same as Wednesday. That's why there's no real notes here, and it starts at right tackle. Jalen Moore hurt his ankle. It's his second injury in a month after he missed the Seattle game in concussion protocol. This is a tackle with an $18.7 million cap this year on the last year of his deal, which means now it looks like Joshua Zudu is going to be starting at right tackle. He did a very good job last week. Sunday, there's going to be a lot of names getting a chance to actually play really, really well in the Falcons. Of course, if the Chiefs are playing their defensive coordinator, Jeff Ulbrich said that the first time preparing for Mahomes our first time preparing for Mahomes offense, he started his meetings by talking about the run game, which It goes to show and kind of goes to give some praise to Kenneth Walker and how elite he has been. The rest of the report is good news. Patrick Mahomes, he practiced in full with his elbow and said he'll be 100% on Sunday. Xavier Worthy was also a full participant. Now, the good news is it seems like Mahomes and all those guys are going to be playing, especially Xavier Worthy. The bad news is, again, you still have the injuries to Peter Woods, Omar Norman-Lott, and of course, Josh Simmons and the others. Jalen Moore. So all this lands with the Chiefs at 6-2, half a game behind Denver in the West. The two teams, of course, split their games, but now you're going up against the Falcons. And at the end of the day, this team, like Adam Schefter called them out there a week or two ago saying that this team needs better play from its offensive tackles, which is why the Josh Decker or Taylor Decker question has become so prominent. So here's where I land. If you can get Taylor Decker for cheap on a one-year deal, even maybe a practice squad deal, get it done. Add some more depth to this offensive line. Is he going to be a Pro Bowler? No, but he's someone who actually has the capability of being a very solid player at the NFL level. Call him this week before another team does. Also, at the end of the day here, we're going to need to see Josh Simmons healthy, Jalen Moore healthy, if this team wants a chance at really making a deep run. So comment down below your thoughts on this and also the good news about the fact that, hey, Patrick Holmes, Xavier Worthy, they're going to be good to go.