Chiefs Get Snubbed On Latest All-Rookie Team

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kansas City didn’t offer a lot of prime candidates, and ESPN didn’t devote a lot of prime real estate to members of the Chiefs on its 2025 NFL All-Rookie Team, announced Tuesday.

The only Chiefs rookie mentioned was Josh Simmons, who earned second-team honors at left tackle. But even had Simmons played the entire season, ESPN saw better play from its first-team selection at that all-important position, Saints rookie Kelvin Banks.

“I don't think Simmons would have knocked Banks out of the first-team spot if he had been healthy the whole season,” analyst Ben Solak wrote Tuesday, “but it sure would have been close.”

Simmons, the No. 32-overall selection at the end of the first round, wound up playing just eight games due to a personal leave of absence (Weeks 6-9) and a season-ending broken left wrist on Thanksgiving in Dallas.

kelvin bank — Sep 14, 2025; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Saints offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. (71) against the San Francisco 49ers during the first half at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

Why ESPN selected Banks

Banks, meanwhile, has started all 16 games as the Saints’ blindside protector, helping Tyler Shough blossom into a promising quarterback. According to ESPN, Banks has an 87.7-percent pass-block win rate.

“Banks has slid easily into New Orleans' left tackle spot,” Solak wrote of the ninth-overall selection, “and taken on a veteran's workload with aplomb. Rarely given tight end or chip help, Banks has been an above-average pass protector and has the quickness and flexibility that elite pass protectors often have.

“Those movement skills translate into the running game, where Banks has been a high-impact blocker as a puller and climber. The Saints got a good one.”

Cornerback led Chiefs' crop of rookies

The Chiefs got a good one in Nohl Williams, their second of two third-round choices (85th overall). And while Williams is probably Kansas City’s rookie of the year, the cornerback didn’t register on the list of ESPN, which chose Arizona’s Will Johnson and the Saints’ Quincy Riley as its rookie cornerbacks.

Williams quickly earned Steve Spagnuolo’s trust, thrown into the fire against DeVonta Smith in Week 2, and has played remarkably well against some of the league’s best receivers. He’s played almost exclusively since Trent McDuffie’s season-ending knee injury in the first quarter against the Texans on Dec. 7.

Defensive end Ashton Gillotte (third round) played the full season as a reserve on the defensive line and will finish his rookie year on a strong note. He has 1½ sacks and an interception, but also didn’t register on ESPN’s list.

Kansas City got outstanding contributions on special teams from several rookies, including seventh-rounder Brashard Smith, fifth-rounder Jeffrey Bassa and undrafted players Cooper McDonald and Kevin Knowles, but none of those three got significant snaps from scrimmage.

Smith scored his first NFL touchdown in last week’s 20-13 loss to Denver.

The Chiefs’ second-round choice, Omarr Norman-Lott, was on an upward trajectory from his defensive-tackle position until Week 7, when he underwent season-ending knee surgery to repair an ACL.

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