The Kansas City Chiefs may have released Jawaan Taylor for purely financial reasons, but his stat sheet tells the obvious story. In his debut year with the Chiefs, the OT drew repeated flags for illegal formation. That same year, he led the NFL with 24 total penalties (21 accepted), a trend that followed him through his last season in Kansas City, even if the number went low. But Trey Smith saw something more than just numbers in Taylor’s case.

On In Good Company with Mitch Morse, Smith was asked which teammates haven’t gotten the respect they deserve. He went to offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor, who was released after the new league year.

“Another one is Jawaan Taylor. I think a lot of fans lose sight of the level and caliber of a tackle that they got in him and what he meant to our team and the type of human being he was too,” Smith said. “Can’t say enough good things about Jawaan Taylor as a man, as a person, as a player.”

For many in the Chiefs Kingdom, the public story on Taylor is penalty-first. Taylor drew 19 penalties in 2024 and 13 more in just 12 starts in 2025 before his season ended. Meanwhile, his pass-blocking ranks ranged from 64.6 to 69.5 across three seasons. While they were serviceable, they were never the headline.

But what that narrative misses is the tenacity. Jawaan Taylor started all 45 of his regular-season games and seven playoff contests in Kansas City. That resume includes the Super Bowl LVII championship run against the San Francisco 49ers. He allowed just 3 sacks last season while playing 760 offensive snaps. The penalty flags were real, but so was Taylor’s durability. For head coach Andy Reid, letting Taylor go was a financial move.

Taylor was carrying a $27.4 million cap hit in 2026. By releasing him, KC cleared $20 million in cap space and absorbed $7 million in dead money. Back when Taylor had joined, Coach Reid had initially planned to use him at left tackle, Patrick Mahomes’ blind side, before reversing course. Taylor spent three years with KC at right tackle, and then was gone.

For Trey Smith, who has lined up beside Jawaan Taylor since the latter joined in 2023, losing sight of Taylor’s locker room presence stings more than any production stat or injury history. But he wasn’t the only name on Smith’s list.

“I’ll put Andrew Wylie,” Smith said. “I would say Wylie has been there in a lot of clutch situations, and held that s—t at a high level. And I feel like [he] might not get the claim or the recognition. But he did step up to the plate a lot. I enjoyed playing with him.”

Wylie came to Kansas City in 2017, released by three teams before the Chiefs signed him. He made 59 regular-season starts for the Chiefs till 2023, and was part of the offensive line that didn’t allow the Philadelphia Eagles a single sack in Super Bowl LVII.

The Detroit Lions had a similar story this offseason. Taylor Decker, 140 starts across 10 seasons, requested his release after being pushed toward a pay cut. Now, the Lions carry playoff aspirations for 2026 along with a gaping hole at left tackle. Productive offensive linemen keep getting repositioned, penalized, or priced out.

Looking back at Kansas City, though, both stories from Trey Smith’s past point directly to what the Chiefs need to fix in 2026.

The run game problem for KC

The Chiefs are struggling with their ground game as Kansas City hasn’t had a single explosive run in two full seasons. Not since Isiah Pacheco broke loose for 158 total yards and a touchdown against the New York Jets in 2023.

The Chiefs managed just three rushes of 20-plus yards in the entire 2025 regular season, with only one of them coming from a running back. Meanwhile, Kareem Hunt led the team with just 611 rushing yards. That’s more like a footnote than a run game, but KC is already trying to fix that.

The Chiefs notably brought in Super Bowl LX MVP running back Kenneth Walker III from the Seattle Seahawks on a three-year, $43 million deal. For Trey Smith, that’s the big boost his squad needed.

“[Kenneth] Walker, speaking on that, fired the [expletive] up for him to my teammate,” Smith said. “Talented runner from the great state of Tennessee. Just watching him in the Super Bowl, one thing that stood out to me was the patience he had as a runner. And before anyone said anything, I was thinking, ‘Damn, he runs like Le’Veon Bell.’”

The familiarity is there. Both runners slow their approach to the line and wait for the opposing linebackers to commit. Then, catching the opponents off guard, they attack the gap that’s created by that mismatch.

In Super Bowl LX, Walker used that patience to produce 135 yards on 27 carries, including runs of 29 and 30 yards in a three-play stretch, and got the MVP title. The holes didn’t open up fast around him. Walker waited until they were real.

As for Trey Smith, the turnaround starts with him at the offensive line, and he already knows his assignment for 2026.

“I need to be able to sustain my blocks better,” Smith said. “I need to be able to displace my three tech, I need to be able to execute the blocks and runs that coach Heck, coach Reid, coach Matthaei, where they draw up. We need to go out there and execute, and we need to make the job of the running back easier. As offensive line, we can be better in that aspect of our game.”

Now, just three 20-plus-yard runs in a season don’t get fixed by one signing alone. But Trey Smith is determined to give his team more opportunities to make plays. Maybe that run game can finally be fixed when the lineman protecting Kenneth Walker holds the opponent for just one beat longer.