Recent Chiefs draft pick already losing his job in training camp

With one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Patrick Mahomes, on their roster, the Kansas City Chiefs have made it a point to do whatever they can to protect him, and for good reason. This means giving Trey Smith a record-breaking extension to ensure he stays in town long-term. It also means using high-end draft capital on improving the offensive line. The Chiefs used a second-round pick on Kingsley Suamataia, expecting him to protect Mahomes for the foreseeable future, but he might have lost his job in record time.

The first left guard to appear with the first-team offense during a red zone drill on Tuesday was not Suamataia; it was Jaylon Moore, a journeyman offensive lineman in his first season with Kansas City.

Suamataia did eventually rotate in after a couple of plays, but this is pretty jarring. If Suamataia was in control of the left guard spot, there'd be no need to rotate. If Suamataia was looking like the favorite to be the starter, he'd probably have gotten the first reps with the first-team, rather than having to be the one rotated in later.

Nothing is set in stone on July 29, but things aren't looking super promising for Suamataia.

Kingsley Suamataia is already losing his grip on potential starting job

You know Suamataia is in a rough spot when the Chiefs traded Joe Thuney away, and Suamataia, a second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, might not be the starter. It shows how much work he has ahead of him to be a starting-worthy offensive lineman on a team trying to win a Super Bowl.

Suamataia was given a chance to start in Week 1 of last season at left tackle, but things went so poorly to the point where he was benched for the majority of the year. The only other game he started was their Week 18 game against the Denver Broncos when several starters were rested.

Suamataia was able to appear in 15 regular season games despite being benched, but he appeared in just 19 percent of the team's offensive snaps, and he had a 39.4 PFF grade, good for 136th out of 140 offensive tackles. He might fare better at guard, but based on the Chiefs wanting to get a good look at other options, they don't appear sold that he'll take the job and run with it.

The Chiefs need Suamataia to work out - they're not exactly in a position to whiff on a second-round pick - but he also has to prove he's ready for the role. Clearly, the Chiefs won't just stick with Suamataia only because he was a highly-touted draft pick. He has to prove he deserves it. So far, with the Chiefs wanting to get a look at other options, we can only assume that Suamataia has a long way to go in that regard.

Fortunately, we're only in July, and the preseason hasn't even started yet. All Chiefs fans can do is hope that in the time he gets with the first-team, Suamataia shows enough to win the starting job the team desperately needs him to win.