Kingsley Suamataia arrived in Kansas City with the kind of dream most young offensive linemen carry: protect Patrick Mahomes, settle in at left tackle and become part of the Chiefs’ future. The 2024 second-round pick even felt the moment coming on draft night, telling his mom, “I think I’m about to get a call,” before the phone rang “two seconds later.”
For a while, it looked like the Chiefs had their answer on the blind side. Suamataia won the left tackle job with what appeared to be only light competition, and the fit seemed natural from the start.
He had already felt at home on his pre-draft visit, comfortable around Andy Reid, offensive line coach Andy Heck and the rest of the organization. “That would mean the world to me,” he said at the time about playing tackle in front of “Patty” Mahomes.
Then Week 2 changed everything.
Against the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson, Suamataia had a rough day that included two holding penalties and two sacks allowed, matching the number of sacks he had surrendered in his last two college seasons combined across 742 pass-blocking snaps. The Chiefs pulled him, and the left tackle dream was over almost as quickly as it had started.
What followed was less glamorous, but it may have saved his career arc.
Suamataia spent much of the season on the sideline, playing only 10 snaps in 13 of the final 14 regular-season games. But when the Chiefs turned him loose at left guard in the regular-season finale in Denver, he finally found his footing.
Kansas City was blown out 38-0 with its starters resting, yet Suamataia held up well in his 31 snaps at guard. Working mostly against Zach Allen, he allowed just one pressure on 24 pass-blocking snaps.
“First time playing guard ever in my life, and I go against probably the best defensive tackle in the league,” Suamataia told The Star’s Pete Sweeney in January. “It was definitely an eye-opener for me, but it was definitely a blessing, too.”
That game became a turning point. The Chiefs took what they saw and acted on it, moving on from Joe Thuney, a perennial All-Pro who had been Associated Press first-team in each of his last two seasons in Kansas City.
Reid said during 2025 offseason training, “I thought he felt more comfortable in there,” and added, “... And that’s where we’ll put him.”
Suamataia has stayed there ever since. At 6-foot-4 and 326 pounds, he gave up just three sacks in 1,091 pass-blocking snaps last season, a sharp contrast from the uncertainty that followed his rocky start as a rookie.
Now he sits in the middle of a line that includes second-year left tackle Josh Simmons, center Creed Humphrey and guard Trey Smith, with Kahlil Benson, an undrafted rookie free agent, and Jaylon Moore competing at right tackle. It’s a group built to keep Mahomes upright and open room for running back Kenneth Walker III, the reigning Super Bowl MVP signed in the offseason.
The growth was obvious even in the preseason. Last year, Suamataia admitted after an uneven first exhibition game that he was “still trying to get the feel of that guard stuff” while learning alongside then-rookie Simmons. By the final 2025 preseason game, he was talking like a man who had settled in, saying, “Going to have to show the world what we can do with that left side.”
Simmons saw it too, predicting a “big narrative change” ahead. Suamataia said the two have developed a strong connection, explaining that Simmons “sees what I’m seeing, I’m seeing what he’s seeing.”
That’s the part of the story Kansas City wanted when it drafted him. Suamataia said it on draft night: “I think I’m going to fit perfectly.” The twist is that the fit came not at tackle, but down the line in more ways than one.
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