If you followed Indiana’s 2025 football season closely — and we know you did — you know it was hard to see this coming.
When the Kansas City Chiefs open their season on Monday night, former IU offensive lineman Kahlil Benson is likely to be the starting left tackle.
The moment is magnified by the fact that Benson will be protecting the blind side of star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is returning in just nine months from a major knee injury.
“He’s done a nice job for us,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said to the media about Benson before Thursday practice. “He’s obviously shown us that he has the ability to play, and we wouldn’t put him in there if we didn’t think that.”
Benson didn’t even play left tackle throughout most of Kansas City’s training camp and exhibition slate. He focused primarily on right tackle and right guard. He played on the right side in college as well.
But multiple injuries now have him protecting the back side of one of the NFL’s most iconic stars.
Benson was not drafted by the Chiefs. He was not even signed to an undrafted free agent deal. The Mississippi native was merely one of around 100 players invited to the Chiefs rookie mini-camp in the spring. His performance at that camp led to free agent deal, and his momentum just kept rolling from there, all the way to a probable week one start on Monday Night Football.
Benson won the starting right tackle job ahead of Indiana’s 2025 season, but that was the result of a fall camp competition. And at least in part due to a wave of nagging injuries, Benson’s performance was uneven throughout Indiana’s national championship campaign.
The 6-foot-6 and 319-pound Benson played 835 snaps at right tackle for Indiana in 2025, while ceding 149 to Zen Michalski and 112 to Adedamola Ajani at the position.
There was a suspension for a half against Indiana State, and Benson was in and out of multiple games as he dealt with various minor injuries and performance issues.
Despite playing nearly 200 fewer snaps than the other starters, Benson allowed the most total quarterback pressures (24) of any IU offensive lineman in 2025, the most hurries (19) and the most sacks (4). At Penn State Benson allowed six pressures, he then struggled again vs. Wisconsin, and in the games that followed his snap count was reduced against Purdue, Ohio State and Alabama.
Things have never come easy for Benson, who missed his 2020 true freshman season after suffering a knee injury during fall camp.
After not playing at all in 2021, he started five games for IU in 2022 and all 12 games in 2023.
When Tom Allen was fired after the 2023 season, Benson transferred to Colorado, where he played for Deion Sanders for a year. There were more injuries that season that caused Benson to miss multiple games.
Bob Bostad arrived as offensive line coach at IU in 2023 and would be influential in bringing Benson back to Bloomington in 2025.
Obviously there was something Bostad saw in Benson, and now the Chiefs see it too.
And now Benson has the opportunity of a lifetime.
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