The Chiefs will cut Jawaan Taylor before the league year opens, wiping $20 million off the books and opening right tackle competition after a disastrous 6-11 season triggered by Patrick Mahomes’ torn ACL.
Kansas City is pulling the plug on the Jawaan Taylor experiment three years into a four-year, $80 million pact, Adam Schefter of ESPN confirms. The release erases his $27.4 million 2026 cap hit and drops another $20 million of breathing room onto Brett Veach’s desk—money the GM can immediately reroute toward pass protection and a receiving corps battered by age and injury.
From parade confetti to penalty flag magnet
2023 confetti hid the first warning signs. Taylor arrived as a 67-game ironman from Jacksonville and played every snap of the regular season plus four playoff rounds on the way to a Super Bowl LVII title. But film rooms and officials noticed the same glitch: false starts, late hands and a habit of drifting too far back into Mahomes’ lap.
The ledger:
- 2023 regular season: 17 starts, 11 flags (7 false starts)
- 2024 regular season: 16 starts, 9 flags
- 2025 regular season: 12 starts, 8 flags before a Week 14 elbow wreck ended his streak at 95 consecutive starts
Quarterback hits allowed climbed from 18 in 2023 to 26 in 2024 and 21 in 12 games last year, per film charting compiled by the Chiefs’ analytics staff. Mahomes was sacked 30 times in 11 games before the ACL tear—on pace for the worst protection rate of his career—forcing Veach to admit the line was “ Scheme- sound but technique-leaky.”
A 6-11 reality check
Everything snowballed after Mahomes crumpled against Denver in Week 15. Blaine Gabbert and Chris Oladokun managed one touchdown in 48 drives, opponents teed off on the right side and Kansas City missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014. The year ended with the league’s 27th-ranked scoring offense and the most penalty yards per game (67.8).
Cutting Taylor became simple math: absorb a $7.4 million dead-cap charge in 2026 rather than pay a league-average tackle top-five money. Veach now sits roughly $63 million under a projected $290 million cap after the Mahomes restructure and Taylor purge, ammunition to chase a veteran tackle and still re-sign or replace Travis Kelce and Marquise Brown.
Next-man-up or next-year-up?
The current depth chart leaves a single chair open:
- LT: Kingsley Suamataia — second-year lottery ticket who flashed in four December starts
- LG: Joe Thuney — locked in through 2027
- C: Creed Humphrey — 2025 second-team All-Pro, extension candidate this summer
- RG: Trey Smith — reliable mauler entering contract year
- RT: Josh Simmons — 2025 third-round pick with 0 NFL snaps
Expect Veach to shop both tiers of the tackle market: high-end (Lions’ Penei Sewell if Detroit tags-and-trades, Giants’ Andrew Thomas) and prove-it deals (Cowboys’ Terence Steele, Rams’ Rob Havenstein). Kansas City also owns two first-round picks—Nos. 15 and 30—ripe for Notre Dame’s Joe Alt or Oklahoma’s Tyliek Williams.
Fan ripple: Dynasty detox or one-year blip?
Ticket prices dipped 11 % on the secondary market after Week 18, the first measurable demand drop of the Mahomes era. Message boards floated wild swings—from signing two $20M tackles to full-scale rebuild—but Vegas oddsmakers still list Kansas City 7-1 to win Super Bowl LXI, third behind Baltimore and San Francisco. Translation: the market believes the roster reset starts up front and ends quickly if Mahomes returns at 100 %.
Bottom line
Releasing Jawaan Taylor is less indictment than inevitability—the first domino in a surgical offseason designed to reload, not rebuild. With $20 million freed overnight and five draft picks in the top 100, Veach can craft a younger, cheaper wall before Mahomes even straps on a knee brace for OTAs. Chiefs Kingdom will watch right tackle more closely than any position this spring; the answer decides whether 2025 was anomaly or inflection.
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