Entering Thursday night, the Chiefs certainly had done enough replenishing and spackling of their roster through free agency to be able to operate with a free hand in the 2025 NFL Draft.

At least theoretically, they had the flexibility and open minds to “work the board,” as the parlance goes, for the best player available at about any position besides, you know, quarterback.

And of course they seriously had entertained any number of possibilities — and might well have gone another direction if a few things fell differently among the 30 teams that preceded their original place in the order.

Nevertheless, something felt appropriately inevitable about their decision to select a prospective left tackle — Ohio State’s Josh Simmons — with the 32nd pick overall after they traded down a spot with the Philadelphia Eagles to also gain a fifth-round pick.

Never mind that they already had signed veteran Jaylon Moore, an intriguing player despite being a career backup, to fortify the left tackle position.

Because, well, nothing is more urgent this offseason than putting an end to what last season became a carousel ride in a house of horrors — Kryptonite that both gunked up the offense and left three-time Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes at considerable risk.

Giving him space and buying him time — both in terms of any given play and maximizing his career length — had to be the prime directive for the Chiefs, who unsuccessfully churned through four players in trying to salvage the position last season.

“When Pat Mahomes is your quarterback, you can’t have enough of those guys,” general manager Brett Veach said late Thursday night.

Asked to elaborate on how vital it is simply to protect Mahomes, Veach said this: “That’s the name of the game. I mean, he’s the best player in the game. And when Pat is upright, we have some talented weapons.”

So, yes, the Chiefs also need defensive line help and some cornerbacks. And, speaking of talented weapons, chances are that this is tight end Travis Kelce’s last season. It’s also a good draft for running backs.

All else being equal — and, again, dominoes before them falling otherwise — maybe those would have been fine ways to go with their premium pick.

But all things really aren’t equal.

Especially as punctuated by a 40-22 Super Bowl drubbing against the Eagles that left Mahomes battered.

After a season of mostly getting away with life on the edge — and fans holding their collective breath over what might go awry next at the blindside linchpin to the offense — the game illuminated in neon that the Chiefs couldn’t get away with anything less than an extreme makeover, if they expect to stay a perennial Super Bowl contender.

When coach Andy Reid was asked Thursday night what it’s been like dealing with issues at a position that essentially had become a trap door, he smiled and said, “It’s one that we thought we would spend a first-round pick on.”

With a laugh, he added, “And that it would be worth it. And then also look at it in free agency. So we’ve got a couple answers there where we don’t have to take a guard and move them out to that spot (like they did with Joe Thuney last season) or anything. Hopefully, right? Hopefully.”

Of course, it remains to be seen how Simmons will perform as a professional after he suffered a season-ending knee injury in 2024 that the Chiefs believe won’t impede him.

While the Chiefs spent considerable time vetting him, including physically, both Reid and Veach acknowledged he’d have been a far higher pick — perhaps top 10 — if not for the injury that required surgery to repair a torn patellar tendon.

Meaning that even they believe other teams backed off because of the knee, leaving us to wonder what it is that the Chiefs believe they know differently than the skeptics who refrained.

Just the same, they also had clear conviction about Simmons, whom Reid suggested also could play elsewhere on the line, depending on how the competition goes with Moore and how offensive line coach Andy Heck believes he can best deploy them all.

And you can say this with clarity, too:

They went for what they figured was the best option for an absolute necessity instead of a secondary one that would have been a luxury by comparison.

“It was one of those things where,” Veach said, “I mean, it was obviously a need.”