The Kansas City Chiefs are once again Super Bowl Champions. With back-to-back championships and three in the past five years, they are certainly the team to beat in the NFL. However, that also means that they will have a target on their backs for years going forward. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots went nearly a decade between Super Bowl wins after they won their third. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs must hope they don’t have to wait that long.

In order to stay atop the NFL, the Chiefs need to be looking to better their roster as the other 31 teams in the NFL are almost certainly attempting to do the same. One of the areas in which they can stand to improve is on the offensive line, particularly at tackle.Ezoic

The Kansas City Chiefs Interior Offensive Linemen Outperformed Their Tackles

Whereas interior offensive linemen like Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey, and Nick Allegretti were all top-five blockers on the team, tackles Donovan Smith and Jawaan Taylor were average at best. Smith, in particular, had worse PFF blocking grades than any of the other Chiefs starting linemen.

In order to improve and protect Mahomes, Kansas City should replace Smith with a soon-to-be-former Green Bay Packers left tackle.

Should the Kansas City Chiefs Replace Donovan Smith with Green Bay Packers Tackle Yosh Nijman?

The Chiefs signed Donovan Smith to a one-year $3 million contract to protect Mahomes’ blindside in 2023. As the Super Bowl victory proves, he played well enough to get the job done. However, Smith will be on the wrong side of 30 in 2024 and allowed 53 total pressures in 2023, the third most in his career and the third-worst mark in his career. He had not allowed that many pressures since his second year in the NFL.

Due to his declining play, the Chiefs may be better off by letting Smith walk in free agency this offseason. With $23 million of cap space to work with in 2024, Kansas City would likely look for another bargain in free agency to avoid using most of their space on one player at one position.

One soon-to-be free agent that could fit well is Green Bay Packers swing tackle Yosh Nijman. Green Bay has two young former 2022 draft picks who look to be their future at both tackle positions in Zach Tom and Rasheed Walker. Due to their emergence in 2023, Nijman did not get as much playing time as he did in past seasons.

But this is not because Nijman was bad. The Packers committed themselves to a youth movement in 2023, which meant that their young second-year players and rookies got playing time over veterans at many positions. Due to his lack of playing time in 2023, Nijman could be another quality free agent signing while also being inexpensive.

Yosh Nijman Can Play Either Right Tackle or Left Tackle Well

Nijman was signed by the Packers in 2019 as an undrafted free agent. After spending most of that season on their practice squad, he was signed to their active roster in 2020. He did not see much playing time then, though, appearing in just 14 offensive plays all season.Ezoic

However, in 2021, Nijman was forced into an almost impossible situation. All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari was already out for the year with a torn ACL, and the Packers had chosen to replace him with Pro Bowl left guard Elgton Jenkins. In an unfortunate series of events for Green Bay, Jenkins suffered a torn ACL of his own midway through the season.

Enter Nijman, who was tasked with protecting Aaron Rodgers’ blindside for the remainder of the season. For a third-year undrafted free agent with very little NFL game experience, Nijman played admirably well. He allowed 20 pressures in 590 offensive snaps played while committing just three penalties.Ezoic

In 2022, Nijman moved to right tackle due to Bakhtiari returning for 11 games. He played 200 snaps at left tackle and 555 at right tackle that year, allowing 28 pressures, five sacks, and a PFF pass blocking grade of 74.4.

As mentioned, Nijman lost playing time in 2023 due to the Packers wanting to play their younger players. Now that they have established themselves and Nijman is an unrestricted free agent, it is more than likely that he will play elsewhere in 2024.

Given his history and ability to play both tackle positions well, Kansas City should pick up the phone.