This week, signs have been pointing toward veteran D.J. Humphries taking over the starting left tackle position for the Chiefs after Wanya Morris struggled mightily against the Raiders last Friday.
Humphries, 30, has only been with Kansas City for a couple of weeks after getting healthy from an ACL tear suffered late last season. But there’s a clear need for the Chiefs to improve at offensive tackle.
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said this week that Humphries’ energy is contagious, and he’s been carrying himself with a lot of confidence.
“He’s been doing a really good job in practice of being able to show us with the opportunities he’s getting, and I think that’s half the battle,” Nagy said in his Thursday press conference. “It’s just the experience and the confidence, and now, if he gets that opportunity and that’s the way we go, we’ll see on gameday if that’s the case.”
Nagy added that it also “helps a lot” that Humphries has a veteran next to him in left guard Joe Thuney.
“You look there and you see — the one thing that jumps off to me, in regard to D.J., is just, he’s had a lot of reps, so that confidence is there,” Nagy said. “Then, you watch the reps in practice, and you see the mechanics and the techniques that he uses — the basic foundation of fundamentals. If there is something schematically that there might be a question with protection or in the run game, etcetera, Joe’s right there. I think it just really helps out a lot.”
If Humphries does indeed make his first start for Kansas City on Sunday night, it will be his first game action since Week 16 of last season.
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