KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Attempting to solve the puzzle of their left tackle position, the Chiefs will slide a new piece into place Sunday night against the Chargers in turning to veteran D.J. Humphries.
Andy Reid didn’t tip his hand as to who will start at left in Week 14 but sources confirmed to Chiefs Digest it’s Humphries who will draw the start.
“I’m just going to evaluate,” Reid said after Friday’s practice. “I’m going to stick with what I told you before, that he took some reps but let’s just see how he ends up after today and then we’ll go from there. We’ve kind of rotated guys in there but he did take some reps, and he made it through yesterday good so we’ll see how it went today.”
When asked about his prospects of playing Sunday night, Humphries also played his cards close to the vest.
“I don’t know yet,” Humphries said. “I genuinely don’t know yet. We’re kind of just try to play it by ear and try to see how this thing goes. It feels good. My body feels pretty good moving around though so we’re just try to keep learning the offense and getting that continuity with the guys and trying to get out there a little bit.”
The 30-year-old Humphries will be making his first appearance since tearing the ACL in his left knee while playing for Arizona in Week 16 last season. He signed with the Chiefs Nov. 26 after spending the past nine seasons with the Cardinals.
Humphries will become the third different starter at left tackle and the fourth player to take snaps at left tackle for the Chiefs this season. This year’s second-round choice, Kingsley Suamataia, and last year’s third-round selection, Wanya Morris, both delivered uneven performances as starters. The Chiefs pulled Morris out of last week’s win over Las Vegas in the fourth quarter, moving veteran Joe Thuney from left guard to stabilize the team’s pass protection.
The biggest challenge in picking up the Chiefs’ offense, Humphries explained, is learning the terminology and language the team uses to describe the same concepts he used in Arizona in multiple offenses over the years.
“It’s more so like marrying the names and the concepts to what I have in my brain, to what they are here,” Humphries said. “So that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing. But like the guys, like Joe and Creed (Humphrey) and Trey (Smith) and Wanya, those guys, they’ve been helping me so much, just like, marrying stuff. I tell them, “Bro, I know what this is, but it’s like, what is this called?’ So it’s awesome, it helps for real.
“I’ve been able to even help them with some little stuff that’s like, ‘Yo, I do it like this. Like, how do you do it? Oh, why wouldn’t you do it like that?’ So we’ve been able to kind of pass stuff off each other, help each other a lot.
