Chargers: Each AFC West foe's most overrated player in 2023

Kansas City Chiefs: Jawaan Taylor

It can be hard to find a player on the Kansas City Chiefs that is overrated. Andy Reid does a great job at getting the absolute most out of every player on his roster (particularly on offense). Last year we circled Juju Smith-Schuster as he was expected to be the team's WR1 and was not that last season.

But it didn't even matter as the Chiefs didn't miss a beat and went on to win the Super Bowl. This year's most overrated player, Jawaan Taylor, may have a bigger negative impact if he does not live up to standards, though.

The Chiefs moved on from Orlando Brown as it was time to pay him and instead opted to sign Taylor to a four-year, $80 million deal. At the time, many assumed Taylor would shift to left tackle with this kind of payday but it now appears that he is going to stay at right tackle, making his contract a bit rich for his position.

Taylor is a fine offensive tackle, there is nothing wrong with having someone like him on the roster. But he is not that much better than Trey Pipkins, who the Chargers are paying far less. Taylor is paid like he is an elite franchise guy and that just has not been the case thus far in his career.

He is a great pass blocker without a doubt but he is also one of the worst run-blocking tackles in the entire sport. That is not as important in 2023 as it would have been 20 years ago but it is still a huge hole in his game that Kansas City has to work around.

Taylor ranked dead-last in PFF's run-blocking grade among tackles with at least 400 run-blocking snaps last season. Taylor did rank fifth in pass-blocking efficiency last season with a 98.2% efficiency rate (meaning he only allowed pressures 1.8% of the time). However, it was an outlier from his career average of 96.7%. Pipkins' career average is 96.2%.

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