The first overall pick in the 2013 NFL draft apparently will play right tackle to start his NFL career.
That’s what Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Thursday, given the collapse of talks regarding a possible trade of left tackle Branden Albert.
“Well, yeah, that’s right,” Reid told Bruce Murray and Rich Gannon of SiriusXM NFL Radio in response to whether Albert will play the left side and rookie Eric Fisher the right. “I’m gonna play the five best guys. You saw me do that with Shawn Andrews in Philadelphia. Shawn Andrews was as good an offensive lineman as I’ve ever seen at the college level and then he came to the pros and he was the same thing. He was one of the best I’ve ever coached, now, as far as being athletic and being a football player. Well, we had two veteran tackles who were two pretty stinking good players and so we put Shawn at guard and he ended up being a Pro Bowler there.”
There’s still a chance Albert won’t be in Kansas City, but it appears that a trade to Miami won’t happen..
“We allowed Albert’s people to talk and look and do that whole thing and it didn’t work out one way or the other,” Reid said. “And so, you never know, I mean, in this business you’d love to say that he’d be here or not be here, one of the two, but I know he’s a good kid, I know he’s a hard worker and I know he’s a good left tackle. So that gives us a whole lot of flexibility and if he was here today he would be the left tackle. And then we go from there and we just see what happens down the road.”
Although Albert is under contract, he has opted to remain away from voluntary offseason workouts until his status is resolved. He will earn a guaranteed salary of $9.8 million in 2013 as the team’s franchise player. With that amount providing the starting point for talks on a long-term deal, it could be difficult for the Chiefs to extend Albert’s contract.