Chiefs Earn Praise for Key Player—Beyond Patrick Mahomes

The Kansas City Chiefs are counting down the days until the new season starts, literally. The Chiefs took to Instagram on Monday, June 2, to share that the season kicks off in 95 days, so they’re keeping a tally. “Spending our entire 9 to 5 thinking about how there’s 95 days until the season,” the Chiefs stated on the post.

Heading into the 2025 season, the Chiefs will have some veterans on hand, such as quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce, and they’ll also have some new faces and returning but newer guys. One of the latter is getting some big praise.

Alex Ballentine at Bleacher Report has a feature out, published June 2, naming each team’s best potential breakout player and biggest position battle. In it, he picks one Kansas City Chiefs player as a must-watch in 2025.

Look Out for This Kansas City Chiefs Player

In Ballentine’s piece, he breaks down “where each team stands on that front by highlighting the most important position battle that is set to go down over the summer and one player who could rise up over the course of the offseason and preseason to outperform expectations.”

He also admits that “OTAs don’t offer a comprehensive look at what a player can do. We’ll have to wait until August to get that with training camp.” But, still, early observations can be made.

So, where does that leave the Chiefs? Ballentine loves IOL Kingsley Suamataia. The Chiefs drafted him in the second round as their 63rd overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft.

“Thuney’s departure has also opened the left guard spot for competition. That’s good news for Kingsley Suamatia,” Ballentine notes. “To this point, he has been the prime example that throwing an early draft pick at a need doesn’t automatically address it. He was supposed to be the answer at left tackle, but it just didn’t happen.”

Ballentine adds, “There are plenty of linemen who find a move inside rejuvenates their career, though. Suamatia will compete with Mike Caliendo for the job, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him thrive inside where his run blocking could shine.”

He also names the team’s most important position battle to watch as left tackle. “Left tackle was a sore spot for the Chiefs until they bumped Joe Thuney outside down the stretch last year,” he notes in the feature. “Now, he has been traded and the team has questions at both left tackle and guard.”

Another Kansas City Chiefs Standout

Over at PFF, Trevor Sikkema has a May 30 feature out about the best interior defenders in the league.

In some very welcomed news, he names the Chiefs’ Chris Jones as No. 1 on the tally.

“What more is there to say about Chris Jones? The future first-ballot Hall of Famer was once again the highest-graded interior defender in the NFL in 2024 (90.2),” he states in the piece “That makes it 88.0-plus marks in seven of his nine NFL seasons. His 1.69 PFF WAR over the past three years is by far the most among interior defenders.”