Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid has a plan in place for his offensive line.
In an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio on Thursday, Reid said Branden Albert will stay at left tackle if he remains with the team and No. 1 overall draft pick Eric Fisher will open his NFL career at right tackle.
"Well, yeah, that's right," Reid told SiriusXM, according to ProFootballTalk.com. "I'm gonna play the five best guys. You saw me do that with Shawn Andrews in Philadelphia. Shawn Andrews was as good an offensive lineman as I've ever seen at the college level and then he came to the pros and he was the same thing. He was one of the best I've ever coached, now, as far as being athletic and being a football player. Well, we had two veteran tackles who were two pretty stinking good players and so we put Shawn at guard and he ended up being a Pro Bowler there."
The Chiefs placed the franchise tag on Albert in March, and he signed a tender that would pay him about $9.3 million next season. But Albert repeatedly has said he's unhappy without long-term stability and that he's unwilling to play anywhere other than left tackle.
Kansas City and Miami had discussed a trade for Albert, but those talks apparently have died down.
"We allowed Albert's people to talk and look and do that whole thing and it didn't work out one way or the other," Reid told SiriusXM. "And, so, you never know, I mean, in this business you'd love to say that he'd be here or not be here, one of the two, but I know he's a good kid, I know he's a hard worker and I know he's a good left tackle.
"So that gives us a whole lot of flexibility, and if he was here today he would be the left tackle. And then we go from there and we just see what happens down the road."
The Chiefs last week chose a potential replacement for Albert in Fisher, taking the offensive tackle out of Central Michigan over Texas A&M's Luke Joeckel with the first overall pick.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.