In 2025, Kansas City hopes to continue dominating on the interior of the offensive line.

Over the weekend, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler continued releasing his 2025 rankings for NFL players based on a poll of NFL executives, coaches and scouts. While the Kansas City Chiefs didn’t land anyone on Sunday’s list of the top 10 offensive tackles, Saturday’s list of interior offensive linemen included three Kansas City players.

1. Creed Humphrey, Kansas City Chiefs

Highest ranking: 1
Lowest ranking: 10
Age: 26
Last year’s ranking: 7

Last year, Humphrey made the case as the best overall center since Jason Kelce. Now, he’s the top interior linemen thanks to consistency in the voting. He’s the only one to appear on every ballot and was a top-three recipient on the majority of them.

Humphrey’s 96.2 pass block win rate last season ranks sixth among all interior offensive linemen. He’s the lead communicator for a championship-level offense. And his intangibles are well-known around the league.

“He’s great in pass protection, great feet and instincts,” an NFL coordinator said. “Not a mauler in the running game but can get it done enough. Deals with chaos well and can navigate a lot of moving parts for that offense.”

While Humphrey’s 73.2 run block win rate is solid if unspectacular, he did curb the snapping issue that plagued him in 2023. His play in the Super Bowl suffered in part because Joe Thuney sliding to left tackle forced him to help more in protection.

“If you can isolate him one-on-one, you can kick his ass a little bit,” the coordinator said. But that’s not true most of the time. Humphrey did not allow a quick pressure (under 2.5 seconds) across 653 pass-blocking snaps during the regular season.

4. Trey Smith, Kansas City Chiefs

Highest ranking: 1
Lowest ranking: Unranked
Age: 26
Last year’s ranking: 9

That Kansas City franchise tagged Smith at $23.4 million says a lot about the quality of the player. The Chiefs are often salary cap-strapped and aren’t afraid to let marquee free agents walk… but Smith is too unique to escape the Chiefs’ facility.

“Power, brute strength, physicality — he’s a people-mover and a people-stopper,” an AFC executive said.

Smith was a first-round talent in 2021 but fell to the sixth round as some teams were not comfortable with his medical profile, due to a heart condition detected while at Tennessee. He has overcome that to become a premier player.

Smith’s 75.1 run block win rate ranks third among this group, and he received several first-place votes because of it. As one NFL coordinator said, “He’s got elite hands, and he is great at finishing his blocks.”

To be sure, Smith had a rough Super Bowl loss against Philadelphia. But the entire Chiefs line struggled that night, and that game will hardly define him.

6. Joe Thuney, Chicago Bears

Highest ranking: 1
Lowest ranking: Unranked
Age: 32
Last year’s ranking: 4

One of most impressive football feats of the 2024 NFL season was Thuney, at 6-foot-5 and 304 pounds, successfully transitioning from guard to left tackle late in the season. The Chiefs were in a bind, and the offensive line needed help, and Thuney stabilized it. Chiefs coach Andy Reid lauded the move, saying Thuney never complained — and he held his own incredibly well.

Thuney is always among the best statistically — his 96.4 pass block win rate is tied for first among guards with Denver’s Ben Powers — but his versatility was on full display last year.

“Complete package: Speed, athletic ability, hand placement, toughness, instincts,” an AFC executive said. “I think power is a slight deficiency. Versatility isn’t.”

Coaches say he has got elite grip strength — once he is attached to a defensive lineman, he is hard to shake.

“All technique, instincts and smarts with Joe,” a separate AFC executive said. “Physical skills are on the decline.”

My take

If you were looking for an explanation for the team’s offensive line moves during the last calendar year, Fowler’s two articles tell the whole story.

By these rankings, Humphrey is the league’s top interior offensive lineman. That explains the four-year, $72 million contract he received last August. Smith is among the top 5 on the interior, which illustrates the team’s decision to place the franchise tag on him — and its desire to sign a long-term deal with the former Tennessee star. Thuney — just outside the top 5, but now getting long in the tooth — was traded to the Bears, giving the team the cap space needed to sign left tackle Jaylon Moore to a two-year, $30 million deal. He was the backup plan if the team couldn’t reel in Ohio State left tackle Josh Simmons the NFL Draft. Now that Simmons is on the team, Moore serves as his insurance as the rookie recovers from his 2024 injury and acclimatizes himself to the NFL.

You’ve got to love it when a plan comes together, right?

But it’s not without some weaknesses. At this writing — a little over 24 hours short of the July 15 deadline — Smith and the team have not agreed on a new deal. Playing on the $23.4 million franchise tag — which he signed in March — he’ll be an expensive option as the team considers what to do with contracts for players like cornerback Trent McDuffie and defensive end George Karlaftis. And on the other side, second-year player Kingsley Suamatia and veteran UDFA Mike Caliendo will be battling to fill the big shoes Thuney wore on the left side of the line.

Still, this makes it clear: over the last couple of seasons, it hasn’t been an exaggeration to say Kansas City was fielding the league’s best group of interior offensive linemen.