— The LIV Chiefs Kingdom (@1_ChiefsKingdom) April 25, 2020
We had Lucas Niang at #57 in the KC Draft Guide, so this is awesome valued. Played through a hip injury last year. This is definitely a guy earmarked to take over for one of the Chiefs tackles in the future. pic.twitter.com/a1P53sN9bL
New Chiefs OT/OG @Kbniang8 has some WILD college stats. He didn’t allow a single sack in 975 career pass blocking snaps. If that’s not impressive enough, he committed just 3 penalties on 1,982 career snaps.#NFLDraft | #Chiefs | #ChiefsKingdom
-worked out and on field 4X a week
-talked with teammates, coaches/staff a lot during the year
-decided to opt out bc it was most logical thing for him
One interesting thing he noted was that since he was here last year for a bit and had time, he knows the playbook and his assignments now.
Weird to compare this to Speaks. Speaks looked noticably different when he showed up in the shape he did. Niang has always had a bit of a gunt. [Reply]
Originally Posted by wazu:
Niang opting out really starts to make sense when you look at the obesity rates of people who died from COVID.
It always made sense.
He suffered a severe hip injury in the Fall of 2019 and would have started out on the PUP list in 2020, if not IR. Even if he could have come back in December 2020, he wouldn't have been in football shape and would have faced limited snaps, so it was best for him and the team for him to sit out last season.
Now, they'll have him for at least 4 years so that he, OBJ, Humphrey, Thuney and a right guard to be named later can grow together over the next 4 to 5 seasons. [Reply]
One interesting thing he noted was that since he was here last year for a bit and had time, he knows the playbook and his assignments now.
That's exactly what I was saying after we cut Fisher and Schwartz. A lot of people didn't even feel comfortable trusting Niang with the starting RT job because he was "basically a rookie!" And I kept saying, "Rookies only have the playbook for 4 months before the season starts. Niang will have had the playbook for 16 months. And has kept in contact with the coaches and players. And we know was training privately. Etc."
Oh, and you know how everybody in 2013 was like, "Fisher really needs a full offseason in an NFL strength and conditioning program." Guess who got that whether he needed it or not.
I'm not guaranteeing Niang is going to be awesome, but he's not going to be some dumbass rookie when OTAs and/or training camp starts up [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
It always made since.
He suffered a severe hip injury in the Fall of 2019 and would have started out on the PUP list in 2020, if not IR. Even if he could have come back in December 2020, he wouldn't have been in football shape and would have faced limited snaps, so it was best for him and the team for him to sit out last season.
Now, they'll have him for at least 4 years so that he, OBJ, Humphrey, Thuney and a right guard to be named later can grow together over the next 4 seasons.
If Trey wins the Guard job, and the young guys all work out, it’s going to be *insane* having 3/5 of our starting line locked up for four years on rookie deals. The Thuney/OBJ deals won’t even matter because of the discount we are getting on the other three. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Dante84:
If Trey wins the Guard job, and the young guys all work out, it’s going to be *insane* having 3/5 of our starting line locked up for four years on rookie deals. The Thuney/OBJ deals won’t even matter because of the discount we are getting on the other three.
I have a very difficult time believing that Smith can beat out LDT and Kyle Long to start the season, but I do believe he has a very bright future.
I just can't see Reid choosing to start three rookies in Week 1, unless of course it's due to injury.
Starting three rookies at Center, Right Guard and Right Tackle would put an enormous amount of pressure on the young guys right out of the gate. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
I have a very difficult time believing that Smith can beat out LDT and Kyle Long to start the season, but I do believe he has a very bright future.
I just can't see Reid choosing to start three rookies in Week 1, unless of course it's due to injury.
Starting three rookies at Center, Right Guard and Right Tackle would put an enormous amount of pressure on the young guys right out of the gate.
They'd run Blythe out there first. I assume they like Smith's future but if they're starting Humphrey and Niang I'm going to assume they'd like a vet over there. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
He's always been shaped like a refrigerator up top anyway so it's not anything new.
Some here - but mostly on Twitter - didn’t want to believe that. Because Arrowhead live grabbed a picture of him as a freshman at TCU and used that as its comparison, like that’s what he looked like when he was drafted. [Reply]
