Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes Discuss Left Tackle Struggles, Wanya Morris Benching

For the second time this year, the Kansas City Chiefs made a late-game change at left tackle as KC's offense struggled to keep quarterback Patrick Mahomes upright.

Dec 25, 2023; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs guard Joe Thuney (62) and offensive tackle Wanya Morris (64) at the line of scrimmage against the Las Vegas Raiders during the game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

As the Kansas City Chiefs look to make NFL history, they're currently repeating their own. While the 11-1 Chiefs have now clinched their 10th consecutive playoff berth with a 19-17 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, the manner in which the Chiefs arrived at the nail-biting victory left several questions for the AFC's top team to answer.

Late in the fourth quarter of the Chiefs' Week 2 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, starting left tackle Kingsley Suamataia was pulled in favor of Wanya Morris, who retained the starting job through KC's Week 13 showdown with the Raiders. Late in a similarly disastrous game for Morris on Friday, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and offensive line coach Andy Heck made the decision to pull Morris more than halfway through the fourth quarter, choosing to move left guard Joe Thuney to left tackle. Backup lineman Mike Caliendo then entered the game at left guard.

After the game, Reid was asked about Morris's struggles and why the team decided to move Thuney to tackle for the final two drives of the game after quarterback Patrick Mahomes spent the majority of the game under duress.

"Wanya was, he was struggling a little bit," Reid said. "So, moved Joe over there, Caliendo in at guard. I thought it was the right thing to do at that time. Talked to Andy [Heck] about it, he agreed with it, and so we made that move just to solidify things. Pat took a few hits there, and so we were struggling at times."

Asked about how disruptive that level of consistent pressure can be for the Chiefs' offense, Reid noted that it would be hard to expect any offense to withstand those conditions.

"I would tell you that it's disruptive to any offense if the quarterback's getting hit and not able to get the ball off," Reid said. "And so that can be a problem. Now, listen, he's playing against a couple of good players, but you've got to do better than what we did there."

In his postgame press conference, Mahomes was asked about the left tackle switch and the challenges of an in-game change in light of the penalties and sacks that had been coming from his blindside.

"Whoever's out there, I trust those guys to go out there and make it happen," Mahomes said. "I've seen those guys play, and they've played at high levels, and so, the coaches made a move, and I thought the guys went in there and did a good job. I've got to trust it — I think there was times I didn't trust it there on that last drive, and if I can trust it and maybe make some of those throws, then we're not in the situation we were in at the end of the game."

In postgame comments shared by Sam McDowell of The Kansas City Star on Twitter/X, Morris didn't mince words regarding his performance.

"There's no better time to learn than when you get your ass beat," Morris said, according to McDowell. "It sucks to get your ass beat, but you can have two responses: You can lay down or you can get back up and try something new. I'm going to try something new."

Read More: Four Takeaways from the Kansas City Chiefs' 19-17 Win Over the Las Vegas Raiders