{"id":9412,"date":"2025-07-14T15:49:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/9412\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T15:49:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:49:05","slug":"chiefs-roster-espn-rankings-explain-all-2025-offensive-line-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/9412\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs Roster: ESPN rankings explain all 2025 offensive line moves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler continued releasing his 2025 rankings for NFL players based on a poll of NFL executives, coaches and scouts. While the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> didn\u2019t land anyone on Sunday\u2019s list of the top 10 offensive tackles<\/a>, Saturday\u2019s list of interior offensive linemen<\/a> included three Kansas City players.<\/p>\n

1. Creed Humphrey, Kansas City Chiefs<\/p>\n

Highest ranking: 1
Lowest ranking: 10
Age: 26
Last year\u2019s ranking: 7<\/p>\n

Last year, Humphrey made the case as the best overall center since Jason Kelce. Now, he\u2019s the top interior linemen thanks to consistency in the voting. He\u2019s the only one to appear on every ballot and was a top-three recipient on the majority of them.<\/p>\n

Humphrey\u2019s 96.2 pass block win rate last season ranks sixth among all interior offensive linemen. He\u2019s the lead communicator for a championship-level offense. And his intangibles are well-known around the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s great in pass protection, great feet and instincts,\u201d an NFL coordinator said. \u201cNot a mauler in the running game but can get it done enough. Deals with chaos well and can navigate a lot of moving parts for that offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Humphrey\u2019s 73.2 run block win rate is solid if unspectacular, he did curb the snapping issue that plagued him in 2023. His play in the Super Bowl<\/a> suffered in part because Joe Thuney<\/a> sliding to left tackle forced him to help more in protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can isolate him one-on-one, you can kick his ass a little bit,\u201d the coordinator said. But that\u2019s not true most of the time. Humphrey did not allow a quick pressure (under 2.5 seconds) across 653 pass-blocking snaps during the regular season.<\/p>\n

4. Trey Smith, Kansas City Chiefs<\/p>\n

Highest ranking: 1
Lowest ranking: Unranked
Age: 26
Last year\u2019s ranking: 9<\/p>\n

That Kansas City franchise tagged Smith at $23.4 million says a lot about the quality of the player. The Chiefs are often salary cap-strapped and aren\u2019t afraid to let marquee free agents walk… but Smith is too unique to escape the Chiefs\u2019 facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cPower, brute strength, physicality \u2014 he\u2019s a people-mover and a people-stopper,\u201d an AFC executive said.<\/p>\n

Smith was a first-round talent in 2021 but fell to the sixth round as some teams were not comfortable with his medical profile, due to a heart condition detected while at Tennessee. He has overcome that to become a premier player.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s 75.1 run block win rate ranks third among this group, and he received several first-place votes because of it. As one NFL coordinator said, \u201cHe\u2019s got elite hands, and he is great at finishing his blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, Smith had a rough Super Bowl loss against Philadelphia. But the entire Chiefs line struggled that night, and that game will hardly define him.<\/p>\n

6. Joe Thuney, Chicago Bears<\/a><\/p>\n

Highest ranking: 1
Lowest ranking: Unranked
Age: 32
Last year\u2019s ranking: 4<\/p>\n

One of most impressive football feats of the 2024 NFL season was Thuney, at 6-foot-5 and 304 pounds, successfully transitioning from guard to left tackle late in the season. The Chiefs were in a bind, and the offensive line needed help, and Thuney stabilized it. Chiefs coach Andy Reid lauded the move, saying Thuney never complained \u2014 and he held his own incredibly well.<\/p>\n

Thuney is always among the best statistically \u2014 his 96.4 pass block win rate is tied for first among guards with Denver\u2019s Ben Powers<\/a> \u2014 but his versatility was on full display last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cComplete package: Speed, athletic ability, hand placement, toughness, instincts,\u201d an AFC executive said. \u201cI think power is a slight deficiency. Versatility isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coaches say he has got elite grip strength \u2014 once he is attached to a defensive lineman, he is hard to shake.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll technique, instincts and smarts with Joe,\u201d a separate AFC executive said. \u201cPhysical skills are on the decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

My take<\/p>\n

If you were looking for an explanation for the team\u2019s offensive line moves during the last calendar year, Fowler\u2019s two articles tell the whole story.<\/p>\n

By these rankings, Humphrey is the league\u2019s top interior offensive lineman. That explains the four-year, $72 million contract he received last August<\/a>. Smith is among the top 5 on the interior, which illustrates the team\u2019s decision to place the franchise tag on him<\/a> \u2014 and its desire to sign a long-term deal<\/a> with the former Tennessee star. Thuney \u2014 just outside the top 5, but now getting long in the tooth \u2014 was traded to the Bears<\/a>, giving the team the cap space needed to sign left tackle Jaylon Moore to a two-year, $30 million deal<\/a>. He was the backup plan if the team couldn\u2019t reel in Ohio State<\/a> left tackle Josh Simmons the NFL Draft<\/a>. Now that Simmons is on the team<\/a>, Moore serves as his insurance as the rookie recovers from his 2024 injury and acclimatizes himself to the NFL.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to love it when a plan comes together, right?<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not without some weaknesses. At this writing \u2014 a little over 24 hours short of the July 15 deadline \u2014 Smith and the team have not agreed on a new deal. Playing on the $23.4 million franchise tag \u2014 which he signed in March<\/a> \u2014 he\u2019ll be an expensive option as the team considers what to do with contracts for players like cornerback Trent McDuffie and defensive end George Karlaftis. And on the other side, second-year player Kingsley Suamatia and veteran UDFA Mike Caliendo will be battling to fill the big shoes Thuney wore<\/a> on the left side of the line.<\/p>\n

Still, this makes it clear: over the last couple of seasons, it hasn\u2019t been an exaggeration to say Kansas City was fielding the league\u2019s best group of interior offensive linemen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the weekend, ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler continued releasing his 2025 rankings for NFL players based on a poll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[405,9372,9370,352,9371,424,9373,9374,2127,4408,349,2126,2129,4018,4694,99],"class_list":["post-9412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-all","tag-arrowhead","tag-chiefs","tag-espn","tag-explain","tag-front-page","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-game-information","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-roster","tag-line","tag-moves","tag-nfl","tag-offensive","tag-pride","tag-rankings","tag-roster","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}