Mitch Schwartz announces he is having surgery on Wednesday, aims to play in 2021

Kansas City Chiefs right tackle Mitch Schwartz is having surgery on Wednesday, he announced via his official Twitter account.

After never missing a start in his nine-year career, Schwartz, 31, exited the team’s Week 6 game against the Buffalo Bills due to a back issue — and he never took another snap in 2020. The Chiefs placed Schwartz on injured reserve in November.

Asked about the four-time All-Pro several times throughout 2020-21, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid would not rule out an in-season or playoff comeback, but it never happened. Schwartz posted end-of-season thoughts to his official Instagram account in early February.

SCHWARTZ: “I’ve never talked/posted about my workouts or health in the media, and I know a lot of you are curious what’s been going on. I’ll share that at some point but I’m looking forward to getting healthy and getting my body right! Thanks for all the support and well wishes, wish I could’ve been out there, but proud of the season we had nonetheless!”

In Wednesday’s follow-up Twitter message, Schwartz’s key quote was, “The recovery process isn’t too long, which is nice. Looking forward to a healthy 2021!”

Coming out of Kansas City’s brutal loss in Super Bowl LV, the consensus has been its No. 1 need to address is offensive line depth, beginning with the tackle positions.

Schwartz potentially being healthy for 2021 might help to alleviate some of that concern.