There are several reasons behind the Chiefs‘ 21-27 loss to the Chargers on Friday. Penalties were one of them. Kansas City committed ten that evening, and it cost them 71 yards; that’s almost uncharacteristic for the team because last year, they were the fourth-least penalized team in the NFL. So, they have a problem at hand, and HC Andy Reid acknowledged it after the game. “We got to clean up some of the penalties that we had, especially in crucial situations as you’re getting ready to go and potentially score,” Reid opined. And that is something OT Jawaan Taylor needs to pay attention to.

During the game, he was penalized four times: he was called for two false starts as well as two holds. That left the Chiefs and their fans frustrated. In fact, Jason Dunn of the Chiefs Concern podcast on YouTube, who is a former Chiefs veteran, pointed out: “Some of those coaches, and it goes into like the penalty calls, because now all of a sudden you get a penalty. Now you back first and 20, it’s like, oh man, like, what are you doing? Oh, and call us, you know, which that changes things. Coaches got to turn the page on it to call something else.”

Those penalties forced Reid into constant mid-game adjustments, destroying his well-made game plan. Dunn continued, “That [penalty] does change how you call a game. And I have seen that look on Andy’s face, and Andy was pissed. He was pissed. You know, he didn’t want to get busy, but I have seen that look before, like better straighten your tail up.” But none of this is new to Taylor.

If anything, he has a long history of committing too many penalties. For instance, he had the highest penalties in the 2023 season and led the league with 20. Between 2019 and 2023, he committed 58 penalties. That was the most during that timeframe.

These issues have been a point of discussion ever since the player signed a four-year, $80 million contract with Kansas City in 2023. So, they will have to regroup after their loss to the Chargers. After all, the team will next face the Eagles in Week 2—the same Eagles who stopped them from making Super Bowl history. A loss in Week 2 won’t look good because not only do the Chiefs need to avenge their Super Bowl loss, but they also need to refrain from making an unwanted stat: the team has never started 0-2 in a season since 2014.

Taylor’s consistency issues could force the team to explore Jaylon Moore as a possible upgrade at the right tackle spot. Rookie Josh Simmons also looked promising during his debut and could be a possible long-term solution, too. The team will need to find answers for the gaps fans witnessed in Week 1, and for now, they will need Taylor to cooperate. In fact, his penalties didn’t anger just Reid. Tight End Travis Kelce was just as grumpy, and unlike Reid, he decided to show it on the field.

Travis Kelce lost his cool at Jawaan Taylor!

Towards the end of the third quarter, Kelce had had enough of Taylor’s penalties. The cameras caught him confronting his teammate and delivering a helmet-to-helmet shove after yelling. He was clearly frustrated.

The veteran was already having a bad night. He was limited to only one catch for 10 yards during the early stages of the game. And at one point, he collided with teammate Xavier Worthy on the Chiefs’ first offensive drive. The latter was hurt and seen walking to the locker room with trainers. The extent of his shoulder injury is not known yet. But X-rays were done before the player was officially out of the game. But there was another controversial incident surrounding Kelce.

During the third quarter, he collided with the Chargers’ defensive tackle Teair Tart. As shown in the footage available, Kelce was seen shoving Tart after a two-yard run by Kansas City’s running back Kareem Hunt. That provoked Tart, who, in return, slapped the front of Kelce’s helmet. The Chiefs’ star was, of course, shocked by that and quickly put his hands up in the air. The referee threw a flag on the play with a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty on the Chargers’ player. However, he was not disqualified. All in all, it seemed like a tough day for Kelce. What do you think?