Kansas City, Mo. ? Barring unforeseen calamity, the same five men will start Sunday at the same positions on the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive line for the 30th consecutive game — something that hasn’t happened in the NFL for 17 years.

Having Will Shields and Brian Waters at guard, John Tait and Willie Roaf at tackle and brainy Casey Wiegmann at center has enabled Kansas City to be one of the league’s top offensive machines during the past two years.

It made it possible for Priest Holmes to be the NFL’s offensive player of the year and quarterback Trent Green to stay injury-free.

Other coaches, especially those whose offensive lines have been devastated by injury, can only look to the Chiefs with envy.

“Oh, my goodness. They must be living right, because that’s unusual, and that’s very necessary,” said Steve Mariucci, whose Detroit Lions (4-9) are 14-point underdogs to the Chiefs (11-2) Sunday.

“That’s one of the reasons they’re so explosive,” Mariucci said. “It all starts up front in the trenches with that offensive line. It’s one of the best offensive lines I’ve ever seen.”

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the New York Giants were the last team to field the same offensive line in 30 straight games, a streak that ran from September 1985 to December 1986.

Shields, a third-round draft pick out of Nebraska in 1993, and Roaf, who has recovered from reconstructive knee surgery, each has gone to the Pro Bowl eight times.

The 6-foot-3, 320-pound Waters, a second-year starter, is the strongest man on the team. Everybody agrees that Wiegmann may be the smartest — at least in football sense. He is the one who “quarterbacks” the others and makes calls.

“He is the catalyst of that offensive line,” coach Dick Vermeil said. “They all just sort of buzz around him. Everybody respects him tremendously.

“Defenses are so complex and change so much, and how you’re going to handle blitzes. That’s all determined by the protection call and how Casey slides it and moves it. One mistake can kill you. And he doesn’t make mistakes.”

It’s tough getting the offensive linemen to talk very much about themselves. But mention Shields, who just last week set the team record with his 172nd consecutive start, and they become loquacious.

“What Will has done is mind-boggling,” Tait said.

“If you think how many games that is, how many hits, it’s incredible. But not only has he been able to keep playing, he’s kept his game at such a very high level. He’s played through injuries. There have been times when he wasn’t 100 percent. But he still went out there and did it, and did it well. What can you say? He’s the best there is.”

Shields is never entirely happy with how cohesive his unit is.

“There’s always those plays where you think a guy’s doing one thing but he’s doing another,” he said. “Miscommunication still goes on. But it does help that you’ve been together for so long and we do know each other’s abilities.”

As for his own streak, it’s like asking a pitcher to talk about the no-hitter he’s taking into the ninth inning.

“We’ll see what happens Sunday,” Shields said. “There’s no way to say if I’m going to make it. Back can go out. Knee can go out. You never can tell. I’ve been able to play through the injuries. It’s just luck.

“It’s something that years down the road, years after I’m done with the game, I’ll look back on.”