KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs brought their draft picks, free-agent rookies and tryout hopefuls to Kansas City last weekend, nearly 90 of them in all.

This column is about the future of just one — because it’s the player on which the success of the Chiefs’ 2025 draft class should pivot.

Josh Simmons.

If the Chiefs have found a cornerstone left tackle at the back end of the first round — if they have supplied long-term stability for a position defined by its recent chaos — we will certainly grade the rest of the draft on a lenient curve.

That’s the importance of the blindside protection of quarterback Patrick Mahomes — a point that should require no emphasis for anyone who watched the turnstile at left tackle in Kansas City during the 2024 season.

But those ifs with Simmons entail more qualifiers than talent and fit alone.

If you heard about the reasons for his draft-day fall to No. 32 overall — a senior season-ending knee injury at Ohio State that scared off some NFL teams, or at least gave them pause — his level of participation in the first practice of a comparatively irrelevant rookie camp might have surprised you.

It did one person: Andy Reid.

“He’s moving around well,” the Chiefs’ head coach said. “I was surprised at how well he was doing out there, moving. And it looks like he’s comfortable with it.”

And then he notably added: “He looks like he’s got some talent there, doggone it.”

A doggone it? So soon?

All 32 teams confronted the same questions about Simmons ahead of the draft: How healthy is he? And will his knee hold up over the long-term?

We have but three days in a post-draft assessment that will require not only weeks, but months.

But he’s out there.

Already.

Simmons didn’t participate in every drill during the three-day minicamp — the Chiefs are holding him out of anything that would necessitate contact with a defensive player.

But he took part in a solid chunk of a practice period in which the Chiefs have a history of caution. They held their last two first-round picks, Xavier Worthy and Felix Anudike-Uzomah, out of summer practices with minor injuries.

The early participation for Simmons is therefore a promising sign.

But his injury evaluation only sets up an equally difficult — maybe more difficult — evaluation that has been lost in the weeds.

Once healthy, is he the best left tackle on the roster?

Like, now?

It sure would be nice if he was ready immediately, right? The Chiefs signed Jaylon Moore in the offseason and called him their left tackle, but wouldn’t it be a dream scenario if Simmons was both healthy and talented enough to beat him out in training camp? Isn’t that the ideal case, knowing Moore (27 years old) is under contract for just two years and Simmons (age 22) is under team control for five?

Those are legitimate questions.

For us.

The Chiefs should turn a blind eye to all of them. This evaluation — Simmons’ preparedness outside the injury — ought to prompt the same level of scrutiny as his health.

It didn’t a year ago.

Last year, the Chiefs handed second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia the left tackle job. They were so confident in him that they limited his preseason snaps, deeming him ready to roll.

He was not. Didn’t even make it through the second week. And then, well, uh-oh. It became the overwhelming storyline of their season and even their Super Bowl.

The Chiefs need to remember why they endured the turnstile. They were motivated by the idealism that they’d discovered their solution.

The motivation with Simmons over the next several months — through training camp — ought to be practical and simple.

Is he the right choice? Is he the best choice?

Hey, don’t look at me for that answer. It’s far too early to determine it — I’ve seen the guy practice twice in shorts, without pads — and there will be far better football minds studying it. But the foundation of that answer cannot involve hope. It should be honesty.

After all, the Chiefs have something they didn’t have a year ago when they made the Suamataia left tackle blunder.

They have options.

Moore is the most expensive offseason acquisition a cap-constrained team made — two years, $30 million. He fit into a well-executed pre-draft strategy that afforded the Chiefs the opportunity to take a risk with Simmons: Fill the needs now, and then consider the draft a bonus.

That, too, is the product of a lesson from a year earlier, when the Chiefs navigated the draft not only hoping for a player, but actually needing a starter.

Last season, as it became clear Suamataia was the guy, I pointed out the historical risks of starting a rookie at left tackle. No team had ever started a rookie for more than 12 games at left tackle and won the Super Bowl. Only two had even started a rookie at the position at least half the season, and none in a quarter-century.

If the Chiefs’ summer organized team activities (OTAs), mandatory minicamp and training camp prove Simmons is truly ready — in an estimation treated with the same care as his injury — that’s terrific. They could have a top-10 or top-15 talent with the last pick of the first round, because other teams couldn’t afford to take the same risk.

But it’s fine, too, if there’s a wait for Simmons’ impact, even if that wait is a redshirt year.

That whole grading curve I mentioned? It’s not based on the first year.

There’s time.

If he needs it.

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