Chiefs to release OT Jawaan Taylor, ending three-year tenure in Kansas City

The Kansas City Chiefs are ending the Jawaan Taylor era. The Chiefs will release their starting right tackle before the start of the new league year if they fail to find a trade partner, according to multiple reports,

Taylor was set to count for $27.4 million against Kansas City’s books for the 2026 season, per Over the Cap. Instead — assuming that no team is willing to take on his $19.5 million base salary — the Chiefs suffer a $7.4 million dead cap charge and create an additional $20 million in space. The move gets them under the cap ahead of the new league year.

Taylor signed a four-year, $80 million contract with the Chiefs back in 2023, following a four-year stint as the starting right tackle for the Jacksonville Jaguars. There was, at first, speculation that the Chiefs would move him to left tackle to replace the departing Orlando Brown, but they kept him on the right side. 

Almost immediately, issues arose. Taylor was repeatedly flagged for illegal formation penalties throughout his first game with the Chiefs, failing to line up along the line of scrimmage as he attempted to get himself better position for pass-protection sets. 

He led the NFL with an incredible 24 total penalties (21 accepted) during his debut season with the Chiefs, committing six more infractions than the next-closest player, according to Pro Football Focus. The issues persisted across 2024 and 2025, with Taylor tying for the league lead with 19 penalties in 2024 and taking 13 more of them (third-most) in only 12 games in 2025.

Kansas City experienced offensive line issues throughout essentially his entire tenure with the team, with the tackles as by far the biggest culprit — including in the team’s Super Bowl LIX loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, wherein Philly’s defensive front totally overran them to the point that it undermined the entire offense. 

The question now is what’s next for the Chiefs at right tackle. They have the other four spots on the offensive line fairly solidified with 2025 first-round pick Josh Simmons at left tackle, 2024 second-rounder Kingsley Suamataia at left guard and superstars Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith at center and right guard, but they need to find their next answer opposite Simmons this offseason. 

There are some free agents available like Jermaine Eluemunor, Braden Smith, Jonah Williams, Trent Brown, Rob Havenstein, Jack Conklin and more, but none of them are necessarily long-term answers. The Chiefs could look to the 2026 NFL Draft for their answer, where two of the top available tackles — Miami’s Francis Mauigoa and Utah’s Spencer Fano — played on the right side in college. 

Whatever the case, the fact that Kansas City is in a position three years later where it needs to replace Taylor, even though he is just heading into what should be the prime of his career, shines a light on how spectacular a failure his signing was in the first place.