Kansas City Chiefs: Laurent Duvernay-Tardif opting out of 2020 season

Kansas City Chiefs right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif will not be suiting up for the defending Super Bowl champions in 2020.

For those who follow the Kansas City Chiefs closely, you’ll know that Laurent Duvernay-Tardif spends his offseason practicing medicine. He has been working the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic and made the tough decision on Friday evening to opt out of the 2020 NFL season.

If anyone is angry at Duvernay-Tardif for this decision, then that’s ridiculous. Football is a game and that’s it. No one should be angry at him or any other player who makes the decision not to play this year.

LDT especially has a good reason, as he does work in the medical field when he’s not playing football. He knows firsthand what COVID-19 can do and doesn’t want to take any chances.

LDT’s decision to not play this year now opens the right guard position, meaning there will be a position battle for both guard positions now.

Names like Mike Remmers, Andrew Wylie, Martinas Rankin, and third round rookie Lucas Niang now double their chances of landing a starting job in the 2020 season. This could also open things up for UDFA Mizzou offensive lineman Yasir Durant.

Again, it’s hard to blame LDT for this decision. He works in the field and has the luxury of being able to sit the NFL season out.

Whether or not this will end up keeping him from making a return in 2021 or not, we’ll have to see. This is going to be a unique NFL season and something tells me LDT is only the first of many players who will decide not to play in 2020.