Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — The former five-star offensive tackle who moved back home to play football at BYU after initially signing with Oregon has found a new home in the NFL.
Former Orem High tackle Kingsley Suamataia was selected with the 31st pick in the second round of the 2024 NFL draft by former BYU offensive lineman Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs.
The 63rd overall pick is the first Orem High and BYU product to enter the league since wide receiver Puka Nacua was a fifth-round pick by the Los Angeles Rams a year ago, and after the Chiefs traded up (with San Francisco) to acquire the versatile tackle who split his reps evenly on the right and left side of the offensive line.
Twelve months later, Nacua is the NFL's record holder for most receptions and yards by a rookie in league history and looking to build on his breakout first season in Sean McVay's offense.
Can his fellow Tiger follow suit? If another BYU lineman who just signed a long-term extension with the Chiefs has anything to say about it, he will.
"I think I'm going to fit perfectly," Suamataia said. "I'm going to come in as a rookie and be ready to work, where ever coach needs me at. I can play both ways, right and left, and where ever they can fit me, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get that dub."
Suamataia was a consensus top-40 overall prospect coming out of high school, the 5A MVP by the Deseret News after leading Orem to a perfect 16-0 season and a fourth consecutive state championship in 2020.
But he redshirted the 2021 season, playing in just one game, before ultimately deciding to return home and play for the Cougars.
"Kingsley is not just a terrific player with tremendous ability, but a person a great organization like the Chiefs, coach Andy Reid and the fans in Kansas City will love on and off the field," BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said. "I am just so proud and happy for him and the entire Suamataia family."
An Outland Trophy watch contender, Suamataia was a full-time starter at left tackle en route to All-Big 12 second team honors by league media and an All-Big 12 third-team selection by Phil Steele Magazine.
He was ranked among the 30 best players in the conference by College Football News, and earned the nation's sixth-highest grade among offensive tackles prior to his final season by Pro Football Focus.
In two seasons at BYU, Suamataia started all 22 games for which he was available and did not allow a sack in 361 pass-block snaps as a redshirt freshman in 2022.
After earning an invitation to the Reese's Senior Bowl as a redshirt sophomore, the 6-foot-5, 326-pound Suamataia posted a 5.04-second 40-yard dash, a 28-inch vertical jump and 31 reps on the bench press at the 2024 NFL draft combine.
Now he'll follow his cousins, former Desert Hills lineman Penei Sewell (Detroit Lions) and Orem linebacker Noah Sewell (Chicago Bears) into the NFL and become the third-straight left tackle from BYU joining an NFL roster via the draft (Brady Christensen, 2021 and Blake Freeland, 2022).
"I had a bunch of family that played in the league before, too," said Suamataia, who also counts Nacua as a cousin. "It runs in the bloodline. It runs deep, and I'm just so grateful and blessed to be the next one up right now."
