The depth for the Kansas City Chiefs’ rebuilt offensive line has already seemingly taken a hit.
According to a new report from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Chiefs guard Kyle Long suffered a leg injury, seemingly during the course of Organized Team Activities (OTAs). Long, of course, came out of retirement to join the Chiefs as a free agent this offseason and has been working as the starting right guard during OTAs. Kansas City had stayed injury free to this point of OTAs,
Pelissero says that Long underwent tests and the injury is significant enough that it could keep him out for the majority of training camp. The timeline that Pelissero provided puts him back just ahead of the start of the regular season.
#Chiefs guard Kyle Long suffered a leg injury that could keep him out of training camp, sources tell me and @RapSheet. After initial concern it could be a serious injury, Long underwent tests and the hope now is he could be back right before the start of the regular season.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 10, 2021
The good news here is that the injury isn’t a more serious one because it sounds like it could have been that way. One of the biggest knocks to Long during the latter half of his career has been his ability to stay healthy. We’ll just see how this plays out for the veteran.
In the meantime, expect Chiefs sixth-round draft pick, Trey Smith, to get a lot of first-team repetitions in place of Long. While veterans like Andrew Wylie and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif make a lot of sense, the team quietly has been impressed with what they’ve seen from Smith during rookie minicamp and OTAs. He’ll get every opportunity in place of Long and perhaps even earn a starting role.
