A former Super Bowl foe is headed to the Kansas City Chiefs to aid their bid to repeat as world champions.
Longtime Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive tackle Donovan Smith is signing a one-year deal with the Chiefs worth up to $9 million, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported Wednesday, per a source. The team announced the deal on Thursday.
A second-round selection of the Bucs back in 2015, Smith was a constant in the Tampa starting lineup over the last eight seasons. He's started 124 career games, with 13 last year when he dealt with elbow and foot injuries.
Smith, the 64th-ranked free agent in Gregg Rosenthal's top 101 list, played a pivotal role in Tampa Bay winning the Super Bowl in the 2020 season, which was capped by the Tom Brady-led Bucs defeating the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs. Now, Smith will move on from protecting Brady to doing the same for Mahomes. Whether Smith will be protecting Mahomes' blind side as he did Brady will be a prevailing question. If all goes well, Smith will man the left tackle spot, Pelissero reported.
One of the largest signings for the Chiefs this offseason was former Jacksonville Jaguars right tackle Jawaan Taylor. Taylor was assumed to be moving to left tackle after inking his four-year, $80 million deal. Earlier this week in his post-draft news conference, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said Taylor would "run left tackle with the ones," while Lucas Niang and third-round pick Wanya Morris would likely compete for the right tackle spot.
Smith's addition would seem to change some of the Chiefs' plans.
However it plays out, the Chiefs have added a 29-year-old veteran tackle with a championship pedigree to their plans for a repeat.
