Trey Smith today is a two-time Super Bowl champion, has a Pro Bowl honor to his name, and is a foundational piece of one of the NFL’s most dominant franchises in recent history. Since being drafted in the sixth round by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2021, the 6’6” guard has also started every game he’s been healthy for and played a key role in protecting Patrick Mahomes through multiple deep postseason runs.
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But Smith’s journey to the NFL wasn’t a straight line. At one point, there was even a real possibility he wouldn’t make it into the league.
In his latest appearance on Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast, Smith pulled back the curtain on the health crisis that almost ended his football career before it began. It was a battle with life-threatening blood clots in his lungs that derailed his college career at Tennessee and made him a medical risk to every NFL team.
In his sophomore year, following a coaching overhaul, Smith was seen as a building block for the new culture, thanks to a promising freshman season. But during conditioning drills, things took a terrifying turn.
“I passed out… I lost 13 pounds in a day,” Smith recalled. “I remember walking to the library and having to stop like seven times to catch my breath. They rushed me to the hospital [and found] blood clots in both sides of my lungs.”
The diagnosis put Smith’s entire football future in jeopardy. He was placed on blood thinners, highly dangerous for contact sports, and was told if the clots returned, his career would be over. And when the symptoms came back during his sophomore season, it seemed like that was it.
“The doctors told me, ‘If you have blood clots two times, you’ll never play football again.’ I was done in my mind.” But a second opinion at the Cleveland Clinic revealed the clots hadn’t returned, for what doctors saw was residual scar tissue. That moment changed everything.
With help from a blood clotting specialist, Smith followed a strict regimen to continue playing: “I took blood thinner every single day of the week except Friday morning, and I would just wake up and play on Saturdays.” No practices. No contact. No training camp. Just cardio, film, and game day.
Despite these restrictions, Smith played his junior year, stayed at Tennessee to honor a promise to his late mother to finish his degree, and entered the NFL Draft. While his health concerns meant that his Draft stocks plummeted, the Kansas City Chiefs took a chance. And they have been rewarded ever since.
Trey Smith started all 17 games in his rookie season, making him the 17th player in Chiefs history to start all regular-season games. Moreover, he also didn’t allow a sack in Super Bowl LVII against the Eagles—the very same team that recorded 70 sacks in the regular season. In the 2023 playoffs, he again didn’t allow a single sack on Patrick Mahomes.
Today, Smith enters his fifth NFL season playing under a $23.4 million franchise tag, with a long-term deal still pending. But his presence on the field is no longer in doubt, for it all started with one decision: to bet on himself, and keep going.
