Kansas City Chiefs: What Yasir Durant can provide in 2020
The Kansas City Chiefs brought Yasir Durant in as an undrafted free agent. What impact can he have in 2020?
Offensive line is crucial in the NFL, especially for teams who are fortunate enough to have found their franchise quarterback. As we all know, the Kansas City Chiefs have been lucky enough to find their signal caller in Patrick Mahomes and now they have to make sure their offensive line is capable of protecting him.
While the offensive line had themselves a decent season in 2019, they got rocked in the Super Bowl by the 49ers front seven and it’s no secret that the left guard job is wide open. Could rookie UDFA Yasir Durant have a shot at winning that spot?
In all honesty, yes. Yes, he does.
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KC Kingdom’s own Shade Piper wrote about the competition along the offensive line and highlighted Durant, stating,
"Durant will be a player that a bunch of Chiefs fans will be pulling for as a former Mizzou Tiger. He will be an interesting player to watch because due to all of the offensive line depth, he likely faces an uphill battle and could be a player asked to compete at guard."
As a local prospect who spent his collegiate career at Missouri, Durant is going to be someone fans root for this summer. Shade mentioned that Durant has an uphill battle and he’s not wrong, but the two names that have mostly been linked to the left guard job are Andrew Wylie – who struggled in 2019 and didn’t get his job back after Stefen Wisniewski bolted for Pittsburgh – and Lucas Niang – a third round rookie who spent his college days at right tackle.
When breaking it down like that, Durant sneaking in there as a surprise candidate isn’t all that shocking. Injuries pile up along the offensive line and that’s where Durant could find his way onto the field.
Last year, Chiefs fans saw Eric Fisher, Andrew Wylie, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, and Martinas Rankin all get injured at some point throughout the season and other players had to step in for them. If Durant is able to make the 55-man roster, he’d serve as a depth piece. It’s also possible that he spends some time on the practice squad until the Chiefs are in need of him.
Out of all of the UDFAs the Kansas City Chiefs brought in, Yasir Durant is one of the more intriguing names. He played his college ball just two hours away from Arrowhead Stadium and played at a high level for the Missouri Tigers.
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Chiefs fans who have an allegiance to Mizzou are definitely pulling for Durant and here’s to hoping he gets a shot to prove himself at the professional level!