About a week before the Super Bowl, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes bumped into general manager Brett Veach in the training room. Mahomes had required ongoing treatment for a turf toe injury, which he squeezed between game-planning for the Buccaneers.
When he saw Veach, though, he asked about an entirely different topic.
“Hey, how’s Niang doing?” he asked, per Veach’s retelling of the story.
Lucas Niang had opted out of his rookie season. Just days into training camp, the Chiefs had thought him capable of starting. Mahomes sought an update on a player he hadn’t seen in months.
The point of Veach’s anecdote was that despite all of his surroundings, Mahomes’ personality still hadn’t changed much. But the exchange happened to be foretelling. The Chiefs needed Niang that week, as it turned out. Their offensive line was overwhelmed in the Super Bowl loss, a storyline prominently known by now.
So this provided a welcome sight: At long last, Niang is back in a Chiefs uniform. Although he was part of the 2020 NFL Draft class as the team’s third-round pick, Niang took part in the team’s rookie minicamp over the weekend, slotting in a right tackle in 7-on-7 drills. (The Chiefs will classify Niang as a rookie this season since he opted out of 2020.)
He spoke to the media for the first time since his decision to skip the season, citing the unknown of COVID-19 concerns as his reasoning.
“I don’t regret my decision,” he said. “At the time, I thought it was the best decision to make for me. I was thinking long-term, and that’s what I decided.”
He added, “I just didn’t feel comfortable. Not knowing enough about the (virus), it felt like a logical thing to do.”
Niang returns in 2021 to an entirely different situation than the one he departed. The Chiefs have overhauled their offensive line this offseason, signing Joe Thuney, Kyle Long and Austin Blythe, trading for Orlando Brown Jr. and drafting Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith.
But they still see a place for Niang. He spent the year off working out four days per week, he said, fine-tuning technique at four offensive line positions — both tackle spots and both guard spots.
He’d like to retain that versatility — and with offensive line coach Andy Heck, the Chiefs will be on board with that. But given his size (6-7, 328 pounds), he figures most prominently into the conversation at right tackle, a potential battle with incumbent Mike Remmers.
“He’s a big man — a really big man,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “And he has these beautiful feet. I look forward to getting him back in the pads at training camp and moving around and doing what offensive linemen do, the real football part of it. But until then, this gives him a chance to get acclimated mentally and physically as he goes forward. I think that’s a good lead-up for him.”
It’s reality that Niang has not only never played an NFL snap, but he also hasn’t played any competitive football in more than a year. The rookie camp offered the Chiefs their first look at him in a practice setting since last year’s training camp. Without pads, however, it’s not much of an indicator of his readiness to jump back into things.
Reid, for what it’s worth, said Niang arrived in better shape than he appeared to be one year earlier. “You know he’s been doing stuff, so he came in and looked like he got right back into it,” Reid said.
Niang reminded it wasn’t completely a year off. The workouts were regular. And he did spend last offseason on the virtual calls with the team before taking part in a couple of days of training camp. He’s not starting from scratch.
“All the plays and all the thinking is way easier this year,” Niang said. “I could focus more on my technique because I knew my assignments faster, just having been through it once time (last year).”