Amidst all the impressive progress that the various teams in the league have done to upgrade their respective rosters, it seems that the Kansas City Chiefs have one more trick up their sleeve to come up with a promising push in the 2024 NFL season as they have a rookie in Kingsley Suamataia to start as the team’s left tackle.

Selected in the second round in the recent NFL Draft, Suamataia enters the season as a promising prospect for the Chiefs as they hope to place him alongside Patrick Mahomes’ blindside in the season opener. It does seem that the team has some impressive trust on the rookie to begin this campaign.

The Chiefs have become fixated on improving the offensive end that they have now opted to give Mahomes with more options on the attack by adding Suamataia, who will start as the left tackle for the team now more than ever. Kansas City will take on the Baltimore Ravens – one of their heaviest rivals in the game – to begin the 2024 season and will even headline the first game of the season.

A Promising Addition

Suamataia entered the team’s training camp when Wanya Morris had to deal with several injuries – and later had to exit the team’s final preseason game with an injury. Head coach Andy Reid noted that Morris will be back in the coming games, but cleared that Suamataia is slated to begin the first week of NFL action.

"He had a good training camp," coach Andy Reid said. "He had a good preseason, but this is going to be a learning experience for him here. This is a good defensive line, and he's going to -- I'm sure there will be some ups and downs as he goes like any young player has. He's prepared himself, and it's time to go play now."

If things go as planned, Suamataia is expected to be the fourth left tackle who will start in the opening day beside Mahomes for the last four years since becoming the team’s lead QB. Suamataia joins the likes of Eric Fisher (2018-20), Orlando Brown (2021-22), and Donovan Smith (2023). At the age of 21, it does seem that Suamataia will definitely bring some impressive boost to the team’s chances of winning against one of their rivals.

Earning Mahomes’ Trust

Mahomes has seen some different names in his left tackle slot, and it is worth noting that he trusted all of them well to come up with defending his side and even providing him with impressive options down the stretch. For the star QB, however, it seems that there are a lot of potential that he can expect from the rookie.

"He has the confidence. He's going out there, and he's enjoying the moment," Mahomes said of Suamataia. "He's practicing hard. He's learning from the guys beside him. This is, like we said, probably the best defense in the league other than ours, so it's just going out there and competing against the best of the best Week 1. He's going to get kind of introduced fast. I'm excited for him to accept the challenge and see where he's at, but he did a great job in the preseason. He did a great job in training camp, and I'm excited for him to go out there and accept that next challenge."

Of course, the task will never be easy for Suamataia at this point. He has to block out the best Baltimore pash rushers, and one can even say that there is going to be a lot impressive action coming up with the rookie in the spotlight now more than ever.