If you walk into a bar in Kansas City today, you'll see a sea of number 15 jerseys. It’s easy to think the franchise’s timeline is just one giant leap from Len Dawson’s cigarette-smoking cool in the 60s to Patrick Mahomes’ no-look passes today. Honestly, for a long time, that’s how it felt. There was this massive, decades-long void where the team seemed allergic to drafting their own guys.
The history of Kansas City Chiefs quarterbacks is actually a wild, sometimes frustrating story of "borrowed" legends and bridge starters who were just trying to keep the seat warm.
For 30 years, the Chiefs were essentially the NFL’s premier retirement home for San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks. It’s a weird legacy. You’ve got Hall of Famers, guys who threw for 4,000 yards in seasons where the team went 6-10, and a legendary drought where the team didn’t win a single game with a quarterback they actually drafted for over a quarter-century.
The Era of Lenny the Cool
Everything starts with Len Dawson. He wasn’t just a quarterback; he was the identity of the Dallas Texans turned Kansas City Chiefs.
Hank Stram brought him in in 1962 after Dawson had basically washed out in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. It’s the ultimate "one man’s trash" story. Dawson went on to lead the league in completion percentage seven times. He won three AFL championships. When he walked off the field after Super Bowl IV, he was a god in Missouri.
He played 14 seasons. That’s a lifetime in football years. But when he finally hung it up in 1975, he left a vacuum that the front office simply couldn’t fill for decades.
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The Drought and the 1983 Mistake
After Dawson, things got... messy. Mike Livingston took over, and while he was a solid teammate, he wasn’t a franchise savior. Then came the 1980s, a decade that still gives older Chiefs fans a bit of a twitch.
The most infamous moment? The 1983 NFL Draft.
You’ve probably heard of the "Class of '83." It had John Elway, Jim Kelly, and Dan Marino. The Chiefs had the seventh pick. They took Todd Blackledge.
Look, Blackledge wasn't a bad guy, but he wasn't Dan Marino. He struggled. He threw more interceptions than touchdowns. While Marino was shattering records in Miami and Elway was becoming a legend in Denver, the Chiefs were stuck in neutral. This started a bizarre trend: the team completely gave up on the idea of drafting and developing their own talent.
From 1987 until 2017, the Chiefs did not win a single game started by a quarterback they had drafted. Read that again. It’s one of the most statistically improbable streaks in professional sports.
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The San Francisco Connection
Since they couldn't draft a winner, the Chiefs started shopping. Specifically, they shopped in Northern California.
- Steve DeBerg (1988–1991): The man played with a broken finger and still managed to lead the team to the playoffs. He was the definition of "tough as nails."
- Joe Montana (1993–1994): This was the big one. When the 49ers moved on to Steve Young, the Chiefs pounced. Even a "late-stage" Montana was magic. He took them to an AFC Championship game in 1993, a height they wouldn't reach again until the Mahomes era.
- Steve Bono and Elvis Grbac: Both came from the Niners. Bono had a random 13-3 season in 1995. Grbac threw for 504 yards in a single game once. They were good, but they weren't "the guy."
The fan base grew accustomed to this. We expected a veteran, a "game manager," someone who wouldn't lose the game while the defense (led by Derrick Thomas) tried to win it.
The Trent Green and Alex Smith Bridges
In the early 2000s, Trent Green changed the vibe. He wasn't a Niners castoff; he came from the Rams after Kurt Warner took his job. Green was prolific. He started 81 consecutive games, a franchise record. He threw for over 4,000 yards three years in a row. He was the pilot of the "Greatest Show on Turf" lite, featuring Priest Holmes and Tony Gonzalez.
But even Green couldn't get them past the divisional round.
Then came the Matt Cassel years (best not to talk about those too much) and eventually, the Alex Smith era in 2013. Smith is often unfairly maligned as just a "game manager." In reality, he stabilized a franchise that had gone 2-14. He won 50 games in five years. He was the perfect professional, and more importantly, he was the perfect mentor for what was coming next.
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2017: The Night the World Changed
When the Chiefs traded up to the 10th pick in 2017, everyone knew the streak had to end. Patrick Mahomes sat for almost an entire year behind Alex Smith.
His first start was a Week 17 game against Denver in 2017. He didn't have any of the starters playing with him. He still looked like a wizard.
Since taking over full-time in 2018, Mahomes hasn't just rewritten the history of Kansas City Chiefs quarterbacks; he’s rewriting the history of the NFL.
- 50 touchdowns in his first full season.
- Three Super Bowl rings before age 30.
- Multiple MVPs.
He broke the "drafted QB" curse in his very first start as a sophomore. Suddenly, the 50 years of "just okay" quarterbacks felt like a necessary penance for the luck the city finally found.
Key Takeaways for Fans
If you're looking back at this timeline, don't just focus on the Super Bowls. The lean years between 1975 and 2017 taught the organization two things:
- Defense and Rushing can only take you so far. The Chiefs wasted legendary careers like Tony Gonzalez and Jamaal Charles because they didn't have an elite arm.
- Patience in development works. Sitting Mahomes behind Alex Smith is now the blueprint for the rest of the league.
If you want to dive deeper into these stats, I’d suggest looking at the Pro Football Reference pages for Bill Kenney or Steve DeBerg. They played during an era where the rules didn't protect quarterbacks, and their numbers—while modest now—were actually pretty heroic given the circumstances. Also, check out some old film of Len Dawson’s 1969 season; his pocket presence was eerily similar to the "coolness" we see in the pocket today.