KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs will be starting a new left guard and tackle, the latter coming off a major knee injury, when they travel nearly 12 hours to play their season opener on foreign soil against one of the NFL's best defenses.
If that sounds like a nightmare for Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, how would you describe last season?
The Chiefs pondered a half-dozen options back then in trying to protect his blind side, ultimately giving up on second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia and second-year pro Wanya Morris. The result was predictable. Mahomes was sacked 36 times, eight more than any other season in his eight-year NFL career. His sack rate was a career-worst 5.83% of drop-backs, and that translated into a net yards-per-attempt of fewer than 6 for the first time in his career.
The whole mess culminated at the Super Bowl, when the Philadelphia Eagles not only sacked Mahomes six times but hit him on 11 occasions in a 40-22 loss that never seemed as close as the final score might suggest.
“We knew we had to get better,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach acknowledged.
Whether they did will be revealed on Friday night in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the Chiefs open the season against the Los Angeles Chargers. They will be starting first-round pick Josh Simmons at left tackle against a defense that features pass rushers Khalil Mack and Tuli Tuipulotu, while Suamataia — now converted to guard — will be lining up next to him on the left side.
The duo solidified starting roles early in training camp along an offensive line that includes All-Pro center Creed Humphrey, right guard Trey Smith — who just signed a four-year, $94 million extension — and veteran right tackle Jawaan Taylor.
“I think every step of the way so far, they've done a great job of getting better and better, and kind of checking those boxes,” Mahomes said. “This will be a great test for them. This is a prolific D-line with Khalil Mack and really all throughout. They have great depth at edge, at D-tackles, and they were one of the best defenses in the league this past year.
“It'll be another test for these guys,” Mahomes said, “and I'm excited for them to go out there and accept the challenge.”
What other choice do they have?
Simmons has been a revelation in the preseason, perhaps even surpassing what the Chiefs expected of him when they selected him No. 32 overall in the April draft. The biggest reason he slid so far in the first round was that Simmons tore his patellar tendon last season at Ohio State, and many teams were uncertain when he would be ready to play.
Simmons wound up attending every optional workout, mandatory minicamp and training camp practice, and he excelled when he got an opportunity in preseason games. Never once did it look as if his knee was causing him any problems.
“I took preseason with a grain of salt,” Simmons said. “It's kind of backups here, maybe a guy who doesn't play this position here, so I just kind of took it with a grain of salt. How was my technique? Did I take the right footsteps? Etcetera.”
He certainly made a believer of his most important critic: Andy Reid.
The Chiefs coach is an offensive line coach at heart, so he takes particular interest in the big guys up front. And while Reid was predictably understated in his assessment, he admitted that Simmons has looked the part of a franchise left tackle.
“I'll probably be saying this every week through the season, but it's his first year, so there are going to be certain things that he hasn't seen before,” Reid said, “and he's got to fight through that. But he's a talented kid and he's willing. He wants to do well and he's worked very hard. He's worked very hard to get himself into this position right here to be the starter.”
Not just any starter but perhaps the most important starter on the offensive line, one tasked with protecting Mahomes better than it did last season, when it was among the many reasons Kansas City came up short in the Super Bowl.
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Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambles during the first half of a preseason NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Friday, Aug. 22, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
A federal appeals panel on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that released former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from an immigration jail, bringing the government one step closer to detaining and ultimately deporting the Palestinian activist.
The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t decide the key issue in Khalil’s case: whether the Trump administration’s effort to throw Khalil out of the U.S. over his campus activism and criticism of Israel is unconstitutional.
But in its 2-1 decision, the panel ruled a federal judge in New Jersey didn’t have jurisdiction to decide the matter at this time. Federal law requires the case to fully move through the immigration courts first, before Khalil can challenge the decision, they wrote.
“That scheme ensures that petitioners get just one bite at the apple — not zero or two,” the panel wrote. “But it also means that some petitioners, like Khalil, will have to wait to seek relief for allegedly unlawful government conduct.”
Thursday’s decision marked a major win for the Trump administration’s sweeping campaign to detain and deport noncitizens who joined protests against Israel.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokesperson, called the ruling “a vindication of the rule of law.”
In a statement, she said the department will “work to enforce his lawful removal order” and encouraged Khalil to “self-deport now before he is arrested, deported, and never given a chance to return.”
It was not clear whether the government would seek to detain Khalil, a legal permanent resident, again while his legal challenges continue.
In a statement distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Khalil called the appeals ruling “deeply disappointing."
“The door may have been opened for potential re-detainment down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability," he said. "I will continue to fight, through every legal avenue and with every ounce of determination, until my rights, and the rights of others like me, are fully protected.”
Baher Azmy, one of Khalil's lawyers, said the ruling was “contrary to rulings of other federal courts."
“Our legal options are by no means concluded, and we will fight with every available avenue,” he said.
The ACLU said the Trump administration cannot lawfully re-detain Khalil until the order takes formal effect, which won't happen while he can still immediately appeal.
Khalil’s lawyers can request that the panel's decision be set aside and the matter reconsidered by a larger group of judges on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, or they can go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
An outspoken leader of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia, Khalil was arrested last March. He then spent three months detained in a Louisiana immigration jail, missing the birth of his first child.
Federal officials have accused Khalil of leading activities “aligned to Hamas,” though they have not presented evidence to support the claim and have not accused him of criminal conduct. They also accused Khalil, 31, of failing to disclose information on his green card application.
The government justified the arrest under a seldom-used statute that allows for the expulsion of noncitizens whose beliefs are deemed to pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests.
In June, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that justification would likely be declared unconstitutional and ordered Khalil released.
President Donald Trump's administration appealed that ruling, arguing the deportation decision should fall to an immigration judge, rather than a federal court.
Khalil has dismissed the allegations as “baseless and ridiculous,” framing his arrest and detention as a “direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said on social media Thursday that Khalil should remain free.
“Last year’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil was more than just a chilling act of political repression, it was an attack on all of our constitutional rights,” Mamdani wrote on X. “Now, as the crackdown on pro-Palestinian free speech continues, Mahmoud is being threatened with rearrest. Mahmoud is free — and must remain free.”
Judge Arianna Freeman dissented Thursday, writing that her colleagues were holding Khalil to the wrong legal standard. Khalil, she wrote, is raising “now-or-never claims” that can be handled at the district court level, even though his immigration case isn't complete.
Both judges who ruled against Khalil, Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, were Republican appointees. President George W. Bush appointed Hardiman to the 3rd Circuit, while Trump appointed Bibas. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, appointed Freeman.
The two-judge majority rejected Freeman's worry that their decision would leave Khalil with no remedy for unconstitutional immigration detention, even if he later can appeal.
“But our legal system routinely forces petitioners — even those with meritorious claims — to wait to raise their arguments," the judges wrote.
The decision comes as an appeals board in the immigration court system weighs a previous order that found Khalil could be deported to Algeria, where he maintains citizenship through a distant relative, or Syria, where he was born in a refugee camp to a Palestinian family.
His attorneys have said he faces mortal danger if forced to return to either country.
Associated Press writers Larry Neumeister and Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this story.
FILE - Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil holds a news conference outside Federal Court on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 in Philadelphia (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
