Too Good to Hide: Garrett Nussmeier's Promising Preseason Could Force the Chiefs' Hand

Take a look around the NFL at any given moment, and you'll quickly be confronted with a universal truth: there just aren't enough good quarterbacks.

A large swath of the league permanently resides in quarterback purgatory, while even the lucky few teams with franchise signal-callers have to find capable backups for when injuries inevitably arrive.

At age 41, Joe Flacco is on a one-year, $6 million deal to back up Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. The Los Angeles Rams, with reigning MVP Matthew Stafford, spent a first-round pick on Ty Simpson in hopes of avoiding the QB carousel in a post-Stafford world. The Cleveland Browns have sunk remarkable draft capital and absurd amounts of cash into their current quarterback room, resulting in nothing but disasters at every turn.

You may already understand what this has to do with rookie Chiefs quarterback Garrett Nussmeier.

Through two preseason games, Nussmeier has looked like an NFL quarterback. Not a Week 1 starter—not even like a player who is about to jump current backup Justin Fields on KC's depth chart—but like a quarterback who has a place on a professional football field, with potential to grow from there.

When the Chiefs selected Nussmeier in the seventh round of the 2026 NFL Draft, his spot on the 53-man roster was far from guaranteed. He was the ninth-to-last pick of the draft (No. 249 of 257), but it was a noteworthy swing at the time.

With Patrick Mahomes as the team's superstar and Fields as the clear backup for 2026, Nussmeier may have chosen to go elsewhere if he would have been an undrafted free agent. Instead, the Chiefs used their last pick to ensure that he'd join their quarterback room, at least for offseason activities, training camp, and the preseason.

A draft pick spent on a quarterback is always a cause for some intrigue, but Nussmeier's pedigree made Kansas City's selection even more alluring.

In an October 2024 mock draft that projected how the 2025 NFL Draft would play out, Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports mocked Nussmeier at No. 12 overall.

"Right this very instant, if there's one quarterback I had to choose to ascend boards over the next four months, it'd be Nussmeier, who plays with such effortless arm talent, accuracy, and toughness within the pocket," Trapasso wrote nearly two years ago.

Instead of leaving as a potential first-round pick after the 2024 season, Nussmeier stayed at LSU, ultimately hurting his draft stock as he battled through injuries in a disappointing year for the Tigers.

Still, Nussmeier earned a third-round grade in the KCSN Draft Guide, which slotted him in as the No. 3 quarterback in the class. When the Chiefs took Nussmeier in the seventh round, he was the 10th quarterback to be selected.

Again, none of that guaranteed anything for Nussmeier, but it's important context to remember when trying to project what his career could become.

In two preseason games, Nussmeier has seemed comfortable running the Chiefs' offense, looking less like a seventh-round pick and more like a player with more than 1,000 pass attempts at an SEC powerhouse.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Garrett Nussmeier's passing heatmap through the first two weeks of the 2026 preseason. | TruMedia

This has all come in a very small sample size, and it's far from an assurance that he'll become the long-term answer as Mahomes' multi-year backup, but it's also how the rest of the league will be looking at Nussmeier if the Chiefs decide that they don't have room for three quarterbacks on their 53-man roster.

Nussmeier has made the cut in our Chiefs On SI roster projections, but the Chiefs have preferred to carry only two quarterbacks in recent years, allowing that extra roster spot to go to another position group.

Personally, I've seen enough from Nussmeier to make the call. He's worth protecting on the 53-man roster this season, with hopes that his development in Kansas City could lead him to a career that far exceeds his seventh-round draft selection.

If the Chiefs don't agree, there are plenty of quarterback-poor teams that would be wise to give him a longer look.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram for the latest news.

Add us as a preferred source on Google