Chiefs: Unsung Heroes – Mitchell Schwartz – This is the third in a series dedicated to the unsung heroes of the Kansas City Chiefs: those players who are not as well-covered, nor well-known. You know, those players who get little glory, less recognition, and even smaller salaries, that help ensure the machine is well-oiled and make the magic happen. As extraordinary as Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and the others are, they could not be such without these lesser-known guys. Those are the unsung heroes who make the impossible, possible.
Given the bombshell announcement by Chiefs offensive right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif to opt out of the 2020 season, it would be negligent of me to not first mention of our Canadian hero.
LDT’s decision to forgo his role as a starting lineman on the Chiefs 2020 squad and use his talents and training to work as an orderly to save lives and allay the catastrophic effects of COVID-19 in his native Canada instead, makes him the first unsung hero of the Chiefs 2020 season. Kudos to you, Dr. Duvernay-Tardif. Stay safe and be well. Take care of your fellow Canucks, and we’ll welcome you home with open arms in a (hopefully) much less chaotic 2021.
Here’s Patrick Mahomes on LDT’s decision to opt out of the 2020 season:
“[I] respect his decision. He’s a guy that’s been on those front lines working with the people that are suffering from COVID day to day and putting in all that time and all that work. He understands it and his decision was, he wanted to stay there. He wanted [to] keep helping in that capacity and I know it was difficult for him, but you respect the decision for him to kinda put his thoughts aside and kinda do what he thought was best to help out his community and the world as he sees it.”
Speaking of offensive lineman, they are, perhaps, the most overlooked and underappreciated players on the gridiron. For the average NFL fan, they are just these big, sweaty dudes that usually just wind up in a massive pile near the line of scrimmage at the end of the play, be that play pass or a run. Rarely do you hear their name called during an NFL broadcast. Unless … unless, that is, they should commit the greatest of football sins — missing a block and a QB or an RB gets clobbered. Then we know them all too well. Offensive lineman are not only the unsung heroes of the NFL, they also double as scapegoats should they shirk a block.
Perhaps, however, the most unappreciated and undervalued offensive lineman of 2019 was Kansas City Chiefs starting right guard Mitchell Schwartz. Despite giving up 0 sacks last year, 0 quarterback pressures in the playoffs, and being the unsung hero of Super Bowl LIV, our Chief not only was not included as a Pro-Bowl selection, a rating of a top 10 offensive lineman was denied him. This despite that out of 834 pass-blocking plays in the 2019, defenders touched Chiefs QB Mahomes a mere five times (Note: touched, not sacked).
The devoutly Jewish Schwartz is an anomaly in the NFL. He, along with older brother, Geoff Schwartz, are but a few of the Hebrew faith who’ve graced the gridirons of the NFL since its inception. In fact, Geoff and Mitchell Schwartz are the first Jewish brothers that have both served in the NFL since Ralph and Arnold Horween (both of the Chicago Cardinals), in 1923.
Both, however, started their football careers early in their hometown of Pacific Palisades, CA much to the chagrin of their mother:
“I started out worrying that they were going to get hurt, but then I realized it was the other players I should be worrying about. They were like trucks hitting small cars. And I started to kind of feel like maybe this was their destiny.”
Destiny, indeed! Geoff, the older of the two was drafted in the seventh round in 2008 by the Carolina Panthers, as an offensive guard. He would go on to play for four other NFL teams, including the Chiefs in 2013, before announcing his retirement in 2017. Geoff Schwartz is now a media personality in the sports arena, and like his younger sibling, is not afraid to speak his mind.
Geoff and Mitchell Schwartz penned a book, Eat my Schwartz: Our Story of NFL Football, Food, Family, and Faith, which chronicles their careers, as well as their love of food and family, and their steadfast faith.
Drafted in the 2nd round (37th overall) in the 2012 NFL draft, out of the University of California, Berkeley, by the Cleveland Browns, where he started all 16 games for the Browns. No surprise there, though. While Schwartz was an Oski, he started all 51 games possible from 2008 to 2011 (in college), at either left tackle (35 starts) or right tackle (16 starts).
In his four years with the Browns, Schwartz started every single game at right tackle, without missing a single offensive snap. The Chiefs signed Schwartz in 2016 to a five-year, $33 million contract. It was money well spent.
Schwartz never missed a snap in his time with either the Chiefs or the Browns, in an NFL career spanning eight seasons and 121 games until… a knee injury forced him out of our November 2019 loss to the Tennessee Titans (for only three snaps). Up until then, our unsung hero had logged 7,894 straight snaps and his streak — was the longest among active players in the NFL. It was his 122nd-consecutive game as an NFL player (behind only San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers (218 games) and Baltimore Ravens cornerback Brandon Carr (184 games).
Here’s the part where I should wax eloquently about how important Mitchell Schwartz is to the Kansas City Chiefs. I could also try to explain how his footwork and ability to use his entire body to protect those who live in his backfield is to our Red and Gold. I’d sound foolish, to be honest. I know not the machinations nor mechanics which makes an offensive lineman great. Fortunately, I happened upon a YouTube video from Jackson Krueger Sports Production, which shows the value added by our right tackle in Super Bowl LIV.
Michael Travis Rose — ArrowheadOne
If you are viewing this in Apple News and would like to join the Discussion, [GO HERE.](http://arrowheadone.com/chiefs-unsung-heroes-mitchell-schwartz/#disqus_thread)