Who Leads the Chiefs If Their Two-Time MVP Goes Down?
It's not a controversial take to say that Patrick Mahomes is the Chiefs’ whole franchise in the 2020s. He’s the face of the league, Kansas City’s first and only player to win league MVP, and the central axis on which they’ve won three different Super Bowls. There’s not a player on the Chiefs roster that they wouldn’t give up to keep Mahomes, nor a player elsewhere in the league they’d trade him for. As untouchable as he is to the Chiefs organization and fanbase, Mahomes is unfortunately far from untouchable when it comes to the wear and tear of playing in the NFL.
It would be very unfair, even flat-out incorrect, to call Mahomes “injury-prone.” That said, the Chiefs’ QB is at least nipped by the injury bug every year. Sometimes it's during the regular season, such as the high ankle sprain in Week 15 last season, or the infamous QB sneak knee injury back in 2019. Other times, it’s during crunch time in the playoffs, such as yet another brutal high ankle sprain against the Jags in 2023, or having to exit the game with a concussion against the Browns in 2021.
Those playoff games in particular are very interesting when discussing the Chiefs without a healthy Mahomes. In both games, veteran journeyman QB Chad Henne, the second-string quarterback for Kansas City, forever etched his name in Chiefs legend by closing out victories that would send KC to the AFC title game. Against the Browns in 2021, he nearly converted a game-clinching first down on a gutsy rush before icing the game with a pass to Tyreek Hill on a play so unexpected that it fooled even Tony Romo on commentary. Two years later against Jacksonville, Henne led the Chiefs on the franchise’s longest-ever drive in postseason history, forcing the ball 98 yards down the field to an eventual touchdown pass to Travis Kelce after being pinned at their two-yard line.
I am not saying that the Chiefs are just as good without Mahomes as the signal caller. Even after a down year by his standards, he’s one of the clear-cut best players in the entire league, and entertaining any near future without him is lunacy. What I am saying is that Mahomes is still a mortal man in a body made of flesh and blood. As such, he can still get hurt, and there have been times when the Chiefs found themselves down their franchise QB and were still able to pull off huge victories with his understudy. That means that the man who is number two on the Chiefs quarterback depth chart matters and matters massively.
If Heaven forbid, Mahomes does go down with a serious injury at any point during the upcoming season, fans around the league might be surprised at the depth that the Chiefs have at the quarterback position. While the exact positioning on the depth chart might shift throughout this offseason and throughout the preseason, it is still interesting to see who Kansas City has on the sheet behind Mahomes. The man most likely to be the number two option behind Number 15 himself is Gardner Minshew II. Many fans around the league are well acquainted with Minshew Mania, with the mustachioed QB having logged considerable hours as a starting quarterback with the Jaguars, Colts, and, as recently as last season, the Raiders. At 29 years old, the same age as Mahomes, a temporarily Minshew-led Chiefs would have a QB with quite a bit of starting experience, but without the slowing down or wear and tear of age common with the veteran journeyman quarterback archetype.
At the likely number three spot, Bailey Zappe is another newcomer to the Chiefs locker room with starting experience elsewhere. Zappe saw several starts in New England in 2022 and 2023 during the period when the Pats were still struggling mightily to find the heir apparent to Tom Brady. While Zappe wasn’t able to hang onto the starting spot in New England or find an opportunity in the quarterback hell that was the Cleveland Browns last year, a stable system helmed by the likes of Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid could potentially help the young QB expand on his potential. After all, it did wonders for Nick Foles.
Last on the Chiefs quarterback depth chart is Chris Oladokun. Oladokun has been a mainstay of Kansas City’s practice squad for the last few seasons and will likely see himself there again this year. He did see some actual regular-season action last year against the Broncos in Week 18, but that is with the asterisk of the Chiefs treating that game as basically a preseason bout to preserve their starters for the postseason. Still, as of now, Oladokun is on the official Chiefs roster at quarterback. Considering the inherent craziness of the NFL, there’s always a nonzero chance that Oladokun could find himself suddenly thrust into a much larger role with the team. Go ask Kendall Hinton if he thought he would one day be the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.
