Add Bill Belichick’s name to the list of former NFL greats breaking down Super Bowl 59. He knows something about coaching in the big game, having gotten there a record 12 times with eight wins.
The coaching GOAT recently went on Jim Gray’s “Let’s Go!” show from his new office at the University of North Carolina and said there’s one area that let down Kansas City the most against the Eagles.
Bill Belichick Says Left Tackle Issues Doomed Kansas City
The former coach won two Super Bowls as the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator working under Bill Parcells. He parlayed that into the head coaching job with Cleveland before the team moved to Baltimore. He reunited with Parcells for a year in New England, then followed him to the Jets before ultimately returning to the Patriots in 2000.
The following 24 seasons saw Belichick win six Super Bowls while appearing in three more. It’s an unprecedented run that will be extremely difficult to duplicate.
In his latest appearance on “Let’s Go!” the GOAT coach broke down how Kansas City’s revolving door at left tackle was their biggest downfall in 2024.
For the Chiefs… what happened? #SuperBowlLIX
🔊 @Belichick_B breaks it down with @JimGrayOfficial on an all-new Let's Go!
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— SiriusXM NFL Radio (@SiriusXMNFL) February 11, 2025
“For Kansas City this year, a good place to look is the left tackle situation. Clearly, Andy [Reid] and Brett [Veach], the general manager, identified that as a problem, and you know they took Kingsley [Suamataia]…they took him high as the second pick after [Xavier] Worthy. That didn’t work out.” The Chiefs drafted Suamataia late in the second round and expected him to replace Donovan Smith at left tackle.
Belichick continued, “And then they played four offensive tackles with their fourth offensive tackle at the end of the season in the playoffs being Joe Thuney, who’s really a guard who’s never played tackle since he played it at NC State.” The Chiefs gave the rookie two games before turning to second-year tackle Wanya Morris.
The coach went on, “So, they knew what the problem was. They tried to address it. It didn’t work out with Kingsley. It didn’t work out with [Wanya] Morris. Then they made a trade that didn’t work out.” The trade he mentions was the Chiefs signing veteran tackle DJ Humphries off the street in late November. Humphries tore his ACL in 2023, and the Cardinals released him in March of 2024.
There were questions about whether Humphries had fully recovered from his injury when Kansas City signed him, so the team gave him two weeks to get into playing shape before starting him against the Chargers. It didn’t work out as Humphries injured his hamstring his first game back. Thuney replaced Humphries the next week and was the starter through the Super Bowl other than Week 18.
Belichick finished, “They end up playing a guard at tackle, and you get up against some teams, and you can get by with that, but until you get up against the best teams or the best team…that was a problem for them.” Thuney survived in the playoffs against Houston and Buffalo but couldn’t handle Josh Sweat and the Eagles’ pass rush, which sacked Mahomes six times in Super Bowl 59.
Mahomes took 36 sacks in 2024, the most of his career, so it’s safe to say left tackle is a position of need for Kansas City this offseason.