Patrick Mahomes Gets His Right Tackle Back as Jawaan Taylor Returns to Chiefs Minicamp
The Kansas City Chiefs are putting the band back together, and Patrick Mahomes is breathing easier than he has in months.
Right tackle Jawaan Taylor returned to mandatory minicamp this week, fully participating in practice for the first time since the offseason program began. After a year that saw the Chiefs offensive line take a beating, the return of Taylor to the field is the kind of quiet, important news that should worry the rest of the AFC.
The Chiefs reached the Super Bowl in 2024 but lost. They missed the conference championship game last season. The reason was simple. The offensive line stopped protecting Mahomes the way it needed to, and the offense’s bread-and-butter, the deep crossing routes that need an extra half-second of protection, dried up. Mahomes was running for his life. The numbers showed it.
Taylor is a big part of fixing that. He signed a four-year, 80 million dollar deal in 2023 to anchor the right tackle spot. Last year was uneven. He was banged up early. He took criticism for false starts. The Chiefs stuck with him because there was no realistic replacement on the roster. They are betting that a healthy Taylor in 2026 looks more like the player they paid for.
The early returns at minicamp are encouraging. Coaches reportedly liked his footwork in pass-protection drills. He looked lighter on his feet. The conditioning shows. Most importantly for Mahomes, Taylor played a full two-hour session without leaving the field for trainer attention. Last year that became a regular sight.
Add this to the rest of the Chiefs’ offseason and the picture starts to come together. They drafted offensive line help in April. They re-signed center Creed Humphrey to a deal that makes him the highest-paid interior lineman in the NFL. They brought in a veteran on the left side to compete for a starting role. The whole unit is going to look different by the time camp opens in late July.
Mahomes himself has been quietly excellent at OTAs and minicamp. He looks like a man who knows the line in front of him is going to be better. He has not been outwardly campaigning for help the way he did last winter. The body language has shifted.
The other piece of good news from minicamp is on the receiver side. The Chiefs are getting Rashee Rice back without the suspension hanging over him after the league closed its investigation last month. Xavier Worthy looks ready to take a leap. Travis Kelce showed up to camp in the best shape of his life, which the 37-year-old tight end has now done two years in a row in defiance of everything we know about aging in the NFL.
None of this means the Chiefs are the favorite to win the Super Bowl. The Eagles are still there. The Bills retooled in March. The Lions have firepower. But the team that everybody wrote off last winter is reassembling itself in real time, and Mahomes is once again going to be a problem.
The rest of the AFC was hoping the Chiefs dynasty was finished. The minicamp tape suggests it is not. Jawaan Taylor’s return is one small piece of why.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
