The intense rivalry between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals is known to all NFL fans and when one of the members of a team joins his division rival, it seems like a stabbing in the back. Recently, the Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes witnessed the same pain following losing his weapon Orlando Brown Jr. to Joe Burrow’s Cincy.
Brown is set to play on the left side in front of Burrow with Jonah Williams moving to the right and Mahomes is not ready to see his former beloved teammate bolstering his rival team.
Patrick Mahomes expresses mixed emotions over Orlando Brown
Orlando spent the last two seasons protecting Kansas City’s quarterback, however, now he will be protecting Joe and Pat said even though the signing was tough for him, he is continuing an off-field relationship with his ex-teammate.
“Yeah, I know, it’s tough. I mean, I still talk to Orlando, we had a friendship off the field just as much as on the field. You understand how great of a player he is.”
The Bengals and the Chiefs met each other 33 times including 2 postseason games and Burrow’s team grabbed 18 victories while Patrick’s team could turn 15 games in their favor. Hence, the 27-year-old QB isn’t liking the fact that Brown is going to make their rivals stronger than before, albeit he was somehow happy as the ex-Chiefs OT found a deserving deal.
“He makes Cincinnati, even better football team so that stinks for us but at the same time I’m happy for him that he got to a good place where Patrick Mahomes was able to get a good contract that he deserved and everything like that.”
The Super Bowl MVP, being the ultimate sweetheart, said he would be involved in a fun banter with his former teammate about the supremacy of their respective teams following a potential win.
“We’ll still have that friendship, but he’s a competitor like me, so we’re going to be wanting to be able to brag about who wins that football game.”
Who is the new OT for the Chiefs?
Kansas City decided to continue their winning streak by signing the veteran offensive tackle Donovan Smith for a one-year $3 million contract with a maximum ceiling of $9M.
After being selected by Tampa Bay Buccaneers l with the No. 34 overall pick of the 2015 NFL Draft, Smith started 131 of 137 possible games including the playoffs, and didn’t miss a single start during his first four seasons in the NFL, recording at least 1,000 snaps at left tackle position.
The 6-foot-6, 338-pound football giant suffered an elbow injury early in the 2022 campaign, albeit he was still a starter in 13 games for the team and logged 908 total snaps throughout the matches.
However, there was an ongoing discussion regarding the new tackle being a starter for the Chiefs in the upcoming season and the team’s head coach Andy Reid decided to keep fans busy in speculation about the rumor during his press conference at the conclusion of rookie minicamp.
“Yeah, so he’s been a left tackle at a high level. If you look at – last year, he was hurt and then the year before that he was one of the top-rated left tackles in the League. And we’ve had a chance to play against him a couple times, so you know I know seeing him first hand there (that) he’s a good football player.”
The Chiefs are on their cloud nine following the ownership of two Lombardi trophies in the last four seasons. Losing a veteran offensive player like Brown will be a major blow for the team, however, the former Bucs star Donovan has also a track record of success and hopefully, this giant will be able to protect Mahomes to continue Kansas City’s upward trajectory.
