If a first this year and next can get us up to pick Fashanu, we should do it.

Hes going to be a hell of a pass protecting LT, IMO. I don't think that's likely, but it would absolutely be worth the phone call.

You're not thinking long term.

Mahomes sustained a nearly devastating injury with Orlando at LT and Donovan Smith was good enough that Mahomes endured the 2nd-most QB hits in the NFL last season.

The long term focus should be protecting Mahomes as much as possible. If the Chiefs have spotty left tackle play over the next 10 years it drastically reduces the chances of Mahomes catching Brady.

If you don't want Mahomes to end up like Montana you secure LT right now. Patrick is nearing the age where injuries will be harder to overcome. An ounce of prevention....

Until proven otherwise, I expect Burrow to be a very good player. That would be a tough pill to swallow for the Bengals if he’s not able to play at his usual level of performance. They paid him $45 million last year in a lost season, and they’re paying him $65 million for the 2024 season.

a lot of the hits are on mahomes though, he holds the ball a long time sometimes.

I doubt the validity of this report, but if true it’s terrible news for the nfl. The league needs as many betas as it can line up in front of Alpha Pat for the next 10-15 years and Joe is/was one of the best of them.

As far as the protection conversation…

I’d have no problem if we were to trade 32, next years first and third to get one of the athletic LTs in this class.

The problem is…who is going to even entertain that kind of deal and move back that far?

It’s a 2 fold problem.

I honestly think the bigger problem was our WRs were so bad that Pat had to hold the ball more and that caused cracks in protection to become a bigger issue than they would be with better receivers.

The 49ers had a dude get injured during the SB while running onto the field.

Mahomes took some big shots in the Baltimore game that looked more dangerous than the hit taken against Jacksonville in the playoffs last year.

He got hurt during a QB sneak of all things.

Trent Green took a cheap shot and was injured while Orlando Pace was his LT.

I'd love for us to have the best pass blockers around Mahomes to minimize big hits, but he could get injured doing literally anything on the field. Its a dangerous sport.

Think I'd rather have Browning than Burrow at those numbers.

That was my take as well....

I think people forget that Mahomes is simply different from everyone else - and that goes for his training regimen as well. Mahomes trains to lessen the likelihood of sustaining an injury, not necessarily to become a traditional physical freak (see Dad bod). If you watched the quarterback show on Netflix, they highlighted how unique his training is compared to other players in the NFL. The dude literally had his kneecap on the side of his leg- and it wasn't a season ending injury.

Do I want him protected? Absolutely. But there are different ways to go about doing that--either by getting him elite protection so he has more time if he has to hold onto the ball, getting him elite weapons so that he doesn't have to hold onto the ball for so long, or both of those options would be ideal.

2021 was the intersection of elite receiver play and spotty LT play

Defenses can always force a QB to hold the ball.

We would benefit a lot more from Mahomes being able to hold it with impunity.

Particularly since he likes to hold it.

they'll be fine since Burrow is a system QB

Tee Higgins is loving that franchise tag right about now.

Agreed. Let's not lose sight of the ball here. The first rule has to be to protect Mahomes. The team does not appear to have a LT starter under contract. I read that the only two LT expected to be drafted in the first round will go early.

Is the team going to go with a stop-gap measure like D. Smith again? Move our RT over despite his inexperience at the position? Draft a guard highly? What's the plan?

Once football jesus is protected, then we can talk about receivers and defense. Because if he goes down for any length of time the season is effectively over.

He was going to win zero Super Bowls with or without that injury.