Super Bowl 2025: This Chiefs trio has been dominant and could be difference makers vs. Eagles

NEW ORLEANS -- For all the attention paid to their various skill position groups on offense or their defensive line or their secondary, the truth is that over the last several years, the single-best unit on the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs has been the interior offensive line. 

After the Chiefs got demolished up front by the Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV, they set out to remake the entirety of their line. They brought in Orlando Brown Jr. via trade to play left tackle and turned to Lucas Niang and then Andrew Wylie on the right, but the most important, most successful moves they made that offseason were signing All-Pro guard Joe Thuney to what was then the largest contact ever for a player at his position, drafting center Creed Humphrey in the second round and drafting guard Trey Smith in the sixth.

Almost immediately, that trio started -- to use a technical term -- whipping the absolute crap out of opposing defensive lines. They quickly became arguably the best group of interior linemen in the NFL.  

"I think there was cohesiveness in the unit because we all generally liked each other. We all got along really well," Smith said. "And Creed and I worked in the pre-draft process together. Understanding and knowing the guy you played beside and what he's about early on definitely helped a lot."

For three-plus years, that cohesiveness and understanding worked wonders. 

Kansas City kept Patrick Mahomes well protected: He was under pressure on 33.7% of his dropbacks, but had the third-longest average time to pressure among 38 qualified starters, via Tru Media. Basically, he did get pressured, but largely because he was holding onto the ball for a while to wait for his pass-catchers to get open and not because the group in front of him couldn't hold up. 

The Chiefs also ran the ball with great success -- especially up the middle. Between 2021 and 2023, the Chiefs ran for 1,858 yards up the middle, the sixth-most yards in the league. They also averaged 4.6 yards per rush on those plays, tied for the second-best mark in the NFL. 

And they did it, for the most part, with bargain-basement running backs. Undrafted free agent Darrel Williams led the team in carries in 2021, while seventh-round pick Isiah Pacheco did in both 2022 and 2023. In all three seasons, the team's lead back recorded a rushing success rate of 50% or better. 

This season, though, things changed. Kansas City's plan at left tackle blew up in its face. Rookie Kingsley Suamataia simply wasn't ready to take over the job. The Chiefs signed D.J. Humphries to take over at that spot, but while he got up to speed, Wanya Morris struggled so badly that he had to be replaced in the lineup. So the Chiefs did something pretty unusual: They kicked Thuney outside to tackle and replaced him at guard with Mike Caliendo.

Mind you, Thuney was at the time a three-time All-Pro who had been playing guard his entire NFL career. In his previous eight seasons, according to Pro Football Focus, he had played 74 snaps at tackle, with 55 of them coming in one game when he had to move over there due to an injury and most of the others coming when the team use an unbalanced line formation. Even in college, he played a grand total of 105 snaps at tackle. He played almost as many (98) at center. Every single other snap he'd taken in his career was at guard. And yet, he has not missed a single beat.

"It's definitely really cool to watch him go out there and ball and be a selfless player," Smith said. "Watching him and Mike work in tandem, I know they're super close. It's a phenomenal job that they're doing this year."

Caliendo, too, has done yeoman's work stepping in for one of the best guards of the last decade. He's given up just one sack on 212 pass-blocking snaps, according to PFF, and Kansas City has continued to run the ball with success to the left side of the formation. 

"Mike's done a great job stepping into that role and Joe's done a great job moving out from guard to tackle," Humphrey said. "It's not an easy thing to transition, and he's done a great job with it. I couldn't be more proud of both of them."

Caliendo himself gave a lot of credit to both Thuney and Humphrey for helping him with the transition, along with offensive line coach Andy Heck, who is widely considered one of the best line coaches in the league. 

"I've been learning from Joe. I've learned so much from him the past three years. How much of a professional he is week in and week out and the way he prepares for games and just the mindset that he has going out on Sundays and just trying to capture as much as I can and put it into my own game," he said. "It's not too bad having all pro sideboards as a center and left tackle."

On Sunday against the Eagles, the new-look (kind of) interior line will be in for as big a test as it's faced all season. Philadelphia's defensive front is really, really good, and it comes in waves. There are star players, but also a bunch of depth pieces that can make plays. 

"They're just, I mean, really talented, young, great players," Humphrey said. "Like Jalen Carter, obviously an explosive athlete, really good with his hands, very strong. Jordan Davis, just a giant. He's a giant, so he's tough to move in the run game, and he's athletic too. Milton Williams, he's another stud. Moro Ojomo is a stud. All those guys inside are studs, so there's not an easy matchup ever when you're going against his team. And whenever they do rotate, they're bringing in more studs, so you got to be on top of your game at all times against them."

Luckily for the Chiefs, "on top of their game" is where this group has lived ever since it came together four years ago.