The Kansas City Chiefs confirmed on Wednesday the news we were fearing: center Rodney Hudson is done for the year. Losing a starter is never a good thing, especially an offensive lineman. But this is not a disaster for the Chiefs. They have players in place that will make this a little easier to swallow.
There are three things that will happen because of Hudson's move to IR:
1. Ryan Lilja will move to center. I was surprised that he played so well last weekend so I'm encouraged that he can do OK for the Chiefs moving forward. He's not as good as Hudson, we know that. But the drop-off is not as big as I once thought it would be.
2. Jeff Allen will move to Lilja's guard spot. He's a rookie so expect some hiccups but he's a second round pick. He should be ready for this. He had his issues last weekend but the line didn't fall apart. Plus, he should, in theory, get better since he's only a rookie. The Chiefs can survive this.
3. The Chiefs signed two players -- Russ Hochstein and Bryan Mattison. They'll both be depth guys. Ideally, neither of them play because, if they do, it means a starter is hurt or playing very poorly.
Losing a start is never a good thing but this is not a worst-case-scenario situation for the Chiefs. San Diego and Baltimore will be rough because those are good defensive lines. But I'm surprisingly confident in the offensive line, despite the loss of Hudson.
Too confident?