Patrick Mahomes will have plenty of eyes on him when the Chiefs host the Broncos on “Monday Night Football,” but the bigger surprise may be lining up just in front of him.
Kahlil Benson, an undrafted rookie who has climbed quickly through Kansas City’s offseason and preseason, is set to start at left tackle. The catch: he has never played that spot before.
Benson’s path to the lineup has been anything but ordinary. The 24-year-old split his college career between two stops at Indiana, with a one-year run at Colorado in between.
Across that stretch, he worked at right guard, right tackle and left guard. He was also Indiana’s starting right tackle when the Hoosiers won their first national title in 2026.
At 6-foot-6 and 319 pounds, Benson has the kind of frame that gets attention fast. Kansas City liked the way he used it to overwhelm pass rushers, and his 35-inch arms only added to the appeal. The finer points of his technique and his ability to handle quicker edge rushers still need work, but the Chiefs were intrigued enough to offer him a contract after rookie minicamp.
Mahomes has seen the growth up close.
"He's done a great job just competing," Mahomes said of Benson, per ESPN. "I remember watching [rookie minicamp] film and seeing that guy and seeing him kind of do stuff the right way. And he's just gotten better and better all the way to this point."
Kansas City spent most of training camp giving Benson first-team reps at right tackle, and he had been in the mix to take over for veteran Jaylon Moore. But Josh Simmons’ back injury changed the picture, and Benson is now being moved over to protect Mahomes’ blind side instead.
That’s a major ask for a rookie who has never taken snaps there, but it also says plenty about what the Chiefs think of him.
"He's done a nice job for us," Reid said of Benson, per ESPN. "He's obviously shown us that he has the ability to play. We wouldn't put him in there if we didn't think that.
"We've all been through that. I think when we first got hired, we thought we probably were pretty good at it, so I want his confidence to be that and go out and play and just use his abilities."
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It was the sort of wrinkle Reid can pull when he wants to keep a defense guessing, and it gave the Chiefs another reminder that the playbook does not always have to stay in the present tense. The Heisman look worked in the game, but it also left open a bigger question for opponents: if Kansas City is willing to dust off something this unusual in September, what else might Reid have tucked away for later? [Read more 🡒]