Chiefs’ Kingsley Suamataia stayed calm in NFL debut. He credited his ukulele

Kansas City Chiefs rookie offensive lineman Kingsley Suamataia said he didn’t experience much nervousness before his NFL debut Thursday against the Baltimore Ravens.

One reason for that? The 6-foot-4, 326-pound left tackle continued a pre-game tradition of playing the ukulele in his car.

“It’s just a thing that I do,” Suamataia said in the locker room following the Chiefs’ 27-20 victory , “just to get me away from thinking about everything else.”

The ritual seemed to work out well, at least for Game 1.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid was among those pleased with how Suamataia played against Baltimore.

“I thought Kingsley did some good things,” Reid said Monday. “He’ll have plenty to work on going forward. But for his first time jumping in there, against what I really think is a pretty good defensive line now, I thought he held his own.”

Suamataia said Reid and KC offensive line coach Andy Heck shared a similar message after his first NFL start. Afterward, they told him it was a solid performance, but “I’ve got some stuff I need to clean up.”

“So I’ve got to get back into work on Tuesday and clean those things,” Suamataia said, “so I can come back all ready and not make those same mistakes.”

The Chiefs asked a lot of Suamataia, who earned the starting spot at left tackle after the Chiefs selected him in the second round of April’s draft.

Pro Football Focus’ grades indicated he had a better day in pass protection than run blocking, with their numbers saying he allowed one pressure on 17 true pass sets.

Suamataia also had a standout play on receiver Xavier Worthy’s first-quarter touchdown run, getting well downfield to block the Ravens’ Roquan Smith.

“Just having fun, at the end of the day,” Suamataia said with a smile. “I saw that safety come down out. I had to smack him and make a lane for Xavier, and he was gone. So he did the rest.”

Overall, Suamataia said the NFL was “100 times different” than what he saw in college at BYU. That especially showed up in the speed of each play.

“As the guys tell me, as the games get on, it’ll get easier,” Suamataia said. “But it was a good first game. Just put my feet in the water, so I’m ready for the next one.”

Suamataia also was impressed by his first regular-season home game experience. He said at the end, when a replay on the video board showed the Chiefs were about to win, he couldn’t even hear the guys standing next to him on the sideline.

“I just heard everybody yelling. It was live,” Suamataia said. “I couldn’t even explain it.”

The end result was a special night for Suamataia, who returned to the empty field 90 minutes after the game to take photos with family members and friends at midfield.

He said seeing them in the crowd before kickoff led to a quiet moment — and also some self-reflection.

“All the hard work, all the sacrifices that my family has put in, just to be in this place and just to make them proud, to look up at them, is a big blessing to me,” Suamataia said. “So the least I could do is go out there and out-bully somebody.”