31 quarterbacks have started for the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs since their franchise began. The team has also had numerous backup quarterbacks that have stolen the spotlight from the starters.
Under Len Dawson, the Texans/Chiefs won three American Football League championships and appeared in two Super Bowl championship games. Dawson was named Most Valuable Player following the Chiefs' victory in Super Bowl IV. Dawson played a total of 13 seasons with Kansas City and retired with many franchise records. Despite having little success in developing and drafting a quality quarterback of their own, the Chiefs have achieved success under many veteran quarterbacks, including Dave Krieg, Joe Montana, Elvis Grbac, Trent Green and Alex Smith. The Chiefs have often relied on veteran leadership at the position.Althaus, p. 167 It wasn't until 2017 the Chiefs were able to successfully draft and groom a quarterback of their own, Patrick Mahomes, who brought them their first AFC Championship title and second Super Bowl victory.
History
Starting quarterbacks The Chiefs have had many notable and established quarterbacks on their squad at different times. Hall of Famers Len Dawson and Joe Montana led the Chiefs in two successful eras and both led the team to playoff appearances in their first seasons.
The franchise's first starter was Cotton Davidson, who started 25 games for the Texans before being traded in 1962. Team owner Lamar Hunt traded Davidson to the Oakland Raiders for the first-overall selection in the 1963 AFL draft. The franchise used that pick to select future Hall of Fame defensive tackle Buck Buchanan.
In Davidson's absence, free agent quarterback Len Dawson signed with the team on July 2, 1962 after spending a five-year career in the NFL with Pittsburgh and Cleveland. In Dallas, Dawson was rejoined with head coach Hank Stram who served as an assistant coach with Purdue, where Dawson played college football. In his first season with the Texans, Dawson led the team to a double-overtime victory over the Houston Oilers in the AFL Championship Game. The victory brought the team's first league championship.
Len Dawson was the franchise's most successful quarterback, playing in 182 regular season games (158 starts) for the Texans/Chiefs, and holds many franchise records. He was nicknamed "Lenny the Cool" for his calm composure on the field.Althaus, p. 6Althaus, p. 1 Dawson completed 2,115 of 3,696 passes for 28,507 yards with 237 touchdowns and 178 interceptions, good for an 82.6 career rating. He ranks first in team history in pass attempts, completions, passing yards and touchdowns. He led the Chiefs to 94 regular season wins and three AFL titles. Dawson led the Chiefs to an appearance in the first AFL–NFL Championship Game (later known as "Super Bowl I") against the Green Bay Packers. He was named MVP of Super Bowl IV when he directed Kansas City to a 23–7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Dawson was named to six AFL All-Star teams and one Pro Bowl squad, in addition to being named the AFL Player of the Year in 1962. Dawson was also named the NFL Man of the Year in 1973. Dawson threw a franchise record six touchdown passes against the Denver Broncos on November 1, 1964 in a 49–39 victory. In 1966, while still playing for the Chiefs, Dawson became the sports director and anchor for KMBC-TV, a local Kansas City ABC affiliate. As of 2009, Dawson is still KMBC's sports director. He would practice and play for the Chiefs during the day and later help anchor news broadcasts at night. After retiring from the NFL in 1975, Dawson began hosting Inside the NFL on HBO and worked network broadcasts for NBC.Althaus, p. 3 He joined the Chiefs' radio broadcast team in 1984 and provides color commentary to game broadcasts.
Bill Kenney was the team's starting quarterback in various times between 1980 and 1988 and compiled a 46–51 record.Althaus, p. 166 Kenney played behind a porous offensive line and holds the franchise record for most times sacked (195). Kenney's All-Pro wide receiver teammate Carlos Carson said, "I don't care who you are, it's tough to throw a pass when you're lying on your back." Kenney was selected to the 1984 Pro Bowl. After retiring from professional football, Kenney became a State Senator for the Missouri Senate.
The Chiefs made a mistake in drafting quarterback Todd Blackledge in the 1983 NFL draft believing that Blackledge was a better choice than Jim Kelly and Dan Marino. Blackledge never started a full season for Kansas City while Kelly and Marino played Hall of Fame careers. Blackledge started 24 total games in Kansas City, but inconsistent play led to him sharing time with Bill Kenney from 1984–1987.
In the 1987 season, the Chiefs used five starting quarterbacks for the only time in franchise history. Doug Hudson was the last quarterback drafted by the team to start a game until Brodie Croyle started in 2007. In Hudson's only game, he was sacked in the endzone for a safety by the Denver Broncos' Jim Ryan. The sack and fumble is the only recorded statistic for his career.
In 1988, the Chiefs traded two draft selections and safety Mark Robinson to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in exchange for veteran quarterback Steve DeBerg. DeBerg spent four seasons with the Chiefs, leading the team to 2 postseason appearances (in 1990, he did so despite playing with a broken finger). DeBerg compiled 11,873 passing yards, 67 touchdowns and 50 interceptions with the Chiefs with an 81.8 passer rating. DeBerg's best year was 1990 with a 101.2 quarterback rating, passing for 3,444 yards, 23 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions.
On April 21, 1993, Kansas City acquired quarterback Joe Montana, safety David Whitmore, and a third-round draft pick in the 1993 NFL draft (Will Shields) by sending their first-round selection to the San Francisco 49ers. Montana had already agreed on a three-year, $10 million contract before getting traded. Montana would lead the Chiefs to the AFC Championship Game, a feat they would not accomplish again until 2018. He was also selected to the 1994 Pro Bowl. In 1994, Montana led the Chiefs into Mile High Stadium to face John Elway and the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football. Elway performed some of his late-game magic but it was Montana who stole the show in a game later known as the "Monday Night Shootout." The two teams entered the fourth quarter tied at 21, and a Chiefs field goal put the team on top 24–21. After a turnover by the Broncos, Kansas City appeared ready to run out the clock behind running back Marcus Allen. Allen fumbled, leaving the Broncos with possession of the ball, and Elway led the Broncos to a touchdown to give Denver a 28–24 lead. However, with 1:29 remaining, Montana led the Chiefs 75 yards down the field to score the last minute go ahead touchdown, and the Chiefs snapped an 11-game losing streak to Denver with a 31–28 victory.
After the departure of Elvis Grbac in 2001, the Chiefs acquired Trent Green in a trade with the St. Louis Rams. In his first season, Green struggled and was called "a big disappointment." Phil Kloster famously nicknamed him "Tr-INT" after he had a particularly rough outing versus Denver in which he threw 4 interceptions to Deltha O'Neal. This was later picked up from Chiefs fan page Chiefsplanet by Jason Whitlock who printed the moniker in the Kansas City Star and took the nickname to fame. By his third season, Green led the Chiefs to a 13–3 record in 2003 and was called the "mastermind of the Chiefs' high-powered offense." In 2004, Green threw for 4,591 yards and a league-high 556 passing attempts. Green was selected to two Pro Bowl games in 2003 and 2005. Green's 81-game start streak for the Chiefs from 2001–2006 is a franchise record at the position. His 88 career starts for the Chiefs is second behind Dawson. Green is the Chiefs' career leader in passer rating (87.3), average gain per attempt (7.7), 300-yard passing games (24), completion percentage (61.94), and completions of 20 or more yards (274). He is the only quarterback in Chiefs history to throw a "perfect game" registering a 158.3 passer rating against Detroit on December 14, 2003.
In the past few decades, the Chiefs have relied on veteran quarterbacks to lead their team. The Chiefs never drafted their own quarterback to develop until Brodie Croyle was chosen in the 2006 NFL draft and claimed the starting position in 2007. In the years prior to drafting Croyle (1960–2005), the Chiefs had drafted 30 quarterbacks and each led the team to victory just 57 times, or 15%.
When head coach Herman Edwards was hired in 2006, he stated that he was looking towards implementing a "youth movement" into his game plan, and he began his roster moves at the quarterback position. Croyle was the team's starting quarterback heading into the 2008 season, however, he suffered an injury and Damon Huard played in Croyle's absence. Huard started the Chiefs' game in Week 2, but he himself suffered an injury and Tyler Thigpen substituted for the remainder of the game. Thigpen started for the Chiefs in Huard and Croyle's absence against the Falcons. Croyle returned in Week 7 to start against the Tennessee Titans but suffered a season-ending knee injury. Following the injuries to Croyle and Huard, Thigpen became the de facto starting quarterback.
After a poor first career start for Thigpen against Atlanta, a game in which he threw three interceptions, the Chiefs implemented the spread offense. With the absence of RB Larry Johnson, the central part of the Chiefs' offense in years past, offensive coordinator Chan Gailey adjusted the offense to mimic the spread formation run by Thigpen at Coastal Carolina. It was considered by many in the NFL as a gamble, since there have been doubts over the spread offense's longterm success at the professional level. It was also a new direction for head coach Herman Edwards, who has long had a reputation for favoring more conservative, run-oriented offenses. After it was implemented, Edwards began seeing his team gain confidence with every game it played in that wide-open system, as the Chiefs began to become competitive once again on offense.
The switch to the spread offense paid off for Thigpen and his abilities. Prior to the Chiefs implementing the spread offense, Thigpen had been playing erratically with the Chiefs, and he suddenly became poised and effective running the new offense. In Thigpen's second career start, he passed for 280 yards with a 69.4% completion rate, with two touchdowns and no interceptions against the New York Jets, nearly leading the Chiefs to win over the heavily favored Jets. Thigpen's passer rating climbed from 44.3 to 76.9 in the five games following his initial start at Atlanta. The Chiefs scored more than 10 points just twice in their first six games, but scored more offensive points than that in every game since, and twice topped 25 points.
Thigpen won his first game as the Chiefs' starter on November 30 against the Oakland Raiders, leading Kansas City to a 20–13 victory. Thigpen finished 15-for-22 for 162 yards and ran for 48 more. The offensive gameplan finally paid off and resulted in a victory which ended a 7-game losing streak for the Chiefs. Thigpen ended the season starting nine games for Chiefs with a 1–8 record. Six of the losses were within 7-point or less margins. He registered 21 total touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and 2,994 all-purpose yards.
On February 28, 2009, the Chiefs acquired QB Matt Cassel and LB Mike Vrabel from the New England Patriots for the #34 overall selection in the 2009 NFL draft. Cassel competed with Thigpen for the starting quarterback position during training camp and won decisively.