Kansas City Chiefs: Jeff Allen shores up injured offensive line

The Kansas City Chiefs signed offensive lineman Jeff Allen, which is a smart move after two of their five starters along the line got banged up in the last couple of weeks.

In the week win over Jacksonville in week five, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, starting right guard for the Kansas City Chiefs, was injured and left the game. LDT wouldn’t appear in this past weekend’s game and who knows how long he’ll be sidelined.

During the loss to the Patriots, starting center Mitch Morse also left the game with an apparent injury. Morse has had a history of not staying healthy and it wouldn’t be all that surprising if the Chiefs opted not to re-sign him at season’s end.

Bringing in Jeff Allen is a good move for many reasons. For one, he obviously provides depth, which is something the Chiefs need when it comes to their offensive line at the moment. Second, Allen has played for the Chiefs before and is familiar with the organization. It’s not like bringing in a random player who has no knowledge of the Chiefs and what kind of team they are.

Allen was drafted by the Chiefs in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft and remained with the team through the end of the 2015 season. After having a decent 2015 campaign, Allen signed a big contract with the Houston Texans and spent just two seasons there.

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The Chiefs had a mostly solid offensive line through the first six games of the season, only allowing quarterback Patrick Mahomes to be sacked six times. Mahomes isn’t going to be as “sack-prone” as Alex Smith was, but the offensive line is also much better than it was during Smith’s tenure in Kansas City.

Obviously with such an important player in Mahomes, the Chiefs want to protect him and having a sturdy offensive line is vital in doing that. Allen spent most of his Texans tenure at right guard, but also can play left tackle and more than likely could “fill in” anywhere the Chiefs needed him to.

The Chiefs had to throw in both Jordan Devey and Andrew Wylie in last week’s game and both fared nicely actually. Devey took over the center duties after Morse left the game and Wylie was starting in place of the injured LDT.

It’ll be interesting to see where Jeff Allen fits for the Chiefs along the line (or if he even has a starting role), but it’s nice to have an old face back in Kansas City.