Chiefs' Laurent Duvernay-Tardif has seen his ups and downs in second season

I agree with Andy Reid's assessment of Laurent Duvernay-Tardif as the Kansas City Chiefs guard so far this year. The Chiefs coach was asked to evaluate LDT, who is entering his second season in the league, and basically said that he has seen some ups and downs.

"I would tell you he's still learning, but he's making improvement every week," Reid said, via quotes from the Chiefs. "Sometimes he can take that step back and take a little bit of a bigger step forward. I think he's done that to this point. Again, this will be a great test for him and all of the offensive lineman this week. I think they're looking forward to that opportunity."

The thing about LDT is that his lows seem really low. Like a bad game is an awful game or bad snap gives up a sack. Perhaps that's because he's still young and learning. LDT has certainly been inconsistent but he does flash enough promise that you wonder if he can turn the corner as an NFL guard. There are struggling linemen all across the league these days so the question is whether you have time to wait for him to develop. So far, the Chiefs are giving him reps at right guard with five starts in the Chiefs first eight games.

LDT faces arguably and the Chiefs defense face arguably biggest test yet as they visit the Denver Broncos and the No. 1 defense in the NFL.

(Bonus: I can't get through an entire LDT post without mentioning he's a smart dude who went to medical school, so here's a good one-liner from Andy Reid this week: "I keep reminding his coach that someday he might be doing surgery on you, so you better keep it right.")