The Kansas City Chiefs enter the 2026 season with one of the more important goals on the board. Protect Patrick Mahomes. The 30-year-old quarterback is coming off a torn ACL and LCL tendons in his left knee, and while he and the team hope and pray he can be 100% come Week 1, sustaining health throughout the year will be just as important.
At the forefront of this is a young Chiefs offensive line, which did endure its own bumps and bruises in 2025, but played well for the most part and, more than anything, showed how good the entire unit could be when fully intact. Being that Mahomes is a right-handed passer, having a blindside protector at left tackle who can be trusted to keep the pocket clean is paramount.
Enter second-year man out of Ohio State, Josh Simmons, whom Kansas City used its first-round pick on in the 2025 NFL Draft. After a whirlwind of a first professional campaign with the Chiefs that saw Simmons play and perform well in the first five games of the season, he then abruptly left for over a month for reasons that remain undisclosed. To then return in Week 11 and play three more games before dislocating and fracturing his left wrist, placing Simmons on injured reserve, and ending his rookie season.
Josh Simmons' weight could be a very unique but meaningful issue for the Chiefs
He now enters year two with high expectations and the added pressure of not only protecting the best QB in the game, but also the tiny thought in the back of every Chiefs offensive lineman's head that if they let Mahomes get hit hard, it may have a major negative impact on a structurally repaired knee that may or may not have been rushed back a tad too soon. Simmons' weight, however, has been a talking point amongst Chiefs Kingdom ever since speaking with the media a matter of days ago, with some wondering how he could even play at his reduced size.
When asked how much he weighs heading into this season, Simmons was candid. "I'm around 285-290, wanna be 300 flat when I take first snap," he said. Short and sweet, but somewhat of a shock when he said it. Left tackles are generally around 320-330lbs at Simmons height of 6'5". He is clearly in fantastic shape, with the goal of putting on roughly 10-15 more lbs over the next couple of months before season's start. But it's understandable to worry a bit if he can handle the grueling impact a full season has on the body.
I would argue that this is actually a positive, as the league has transitioned into defenses investing more in smaller, faster, and lighter edge rushers to pair with hulking defensive tackles. Just look at the Chiefs drafting R Mason Thomas this past April. He is way out of the norm for a Steve Spagnuolo prototype, but is exactly what the NFL has come to value. Perhaps Simmons being lighter and stronger allows him to move his feet faster and slow down the explosiveness that nearly every team has screaming off the edge.
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