In a preseason built around constant shuffling, the Chiefs took a different path Friday night. Garrett Nussmeier never handed the offense off to another quarterback, and for one game, he got the full weight of the job.
That made Kansas City’s final preseason outing feel more like a real start than a typical August cameo. Nussmeier had already seen action in the Chiefs’ previous two games, but this was his first start since early November last season for LSU. Andy Reid said the chance to work through every part of the night mattered.
“He had to go through the whole thing, the prep for the game, the ups and downs of a game,” Reid said. “I thought he handled things right.”
The setup for that long look came together in a few different ways. Patrick Mahomes stayed out while recovering from knee surgery to repair a torn ACL and MCL from last December.
Chris Oladokun, the fourth quarterback, had suffered a concussion last week and was unavailable. Justin Fields had started the first two preseason games, and as Mahomes’ backup, there was no reason to put him at risk.
So Nussmeier spent the week knowing he would start and probably finish. In training camp, most of the quarterback work goes to Mahomes and Fields, leaving backups to make do with limited chances.
“You know in this league you’re not going to get a lot of reps as a backup quarterback,” Nussmeier said.
He made the most of the volume, even if the box score wasn’t perfect. Nussmeier finished 22 of 34 for 198 yards, with one interception, and the Chiefs never found the end zone. Kansas City’s only touchdown of the preseason had already been scored before Friday night.
The best chance to change that came in the fourth quarter, when the Chiefs reached first down at the Seahawks’ 4. A drive that could have ended in six instead turned into Harrison Butker’s 19-yard field goal after confusion forced the offense to burn timeouts on back-to-back snaps.
Still, Nussmeier gave Kansas City enough to work with. The Chiefs moved the chains on nine of 17 third-down tries, and one of his steadiest connections was with wide receiver Andrew Armstrong, who caught five passes for 54 yards.
Early on, Nussmeier also delivered one of the night’s cleaner moments when he connected with Travis Kelce for Kelce’s only catch of the preseason.
Kansas City opened the game by playing its starting offensive line for one series, and Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy each got an additional series at wide receiver. Seattle, meanwhile, kept its starters out on both sides.
“Preseason games are a little different,” Nussmeier said. “It’s something I’ve never really been a part of before.
You have different guys coming in and out of the huddle, it’s group to group. You have a whole different group within the next series.
“But it was an awesome experience.”
In Other News...
Chiefs Roster Battle Just Got Tougher After Preseason Finale
The Chiefs preseason finale in Seattle ended in a 9-9 tie, but for the players fighting to stick around, the game still carried plenty of weight. Several roster-bubble names made their case in a game built more for evaluation than the scoreboard, with Andrew Armstrong, Brashard Smith, R Mason Thomas and Emmett Johnson all turning in outings that should at least keep their names in the conversation as the team sorts through the final cuts.
Not everyone helped their cause in the same way. Nikko Remigio and Melvin Smith Jr. had quieter nights, and Smith Jr. was forced out with a rib injury, adding another layer of uncertainty to a roster battle that is already tight. For Kansas City, the final preseason tape now becomes a tricky sorting exercise, with a handful of players pushing up and others sliding back just as the decisions come into focus. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs Fans Suddenly Have A Real Harrison Butker Concern
The Chiefs preseason win over the Seahawks came with a small but notable wrinkle for Kansas City fans: Harrison Butker was off on a 58-yard field-goal try, and it fit a recent pattern that has started to draw more attention than a routine August miss normally would. For a kicker who has long been one of the most dependable parts of the roster, the issue is less about one long attempt than the way a few recent kicks have come off.
Across his last three tries, Butker has missed three straight kicks, and every one of them has gone wide right. That has naturally sent fans back to his pregame routine, where he is known for careful measurements and a precise setup before each approach, because when a specialist built on consistency starts missing the same direction repeatedly, it stops feeling like random preseason noise. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs Final Roster Battles Could Change How This Season Starts
With the preseason in the books, the Chiefs are down to the kind of roster decisions that can shape the first weeks of a season just as much as anything that happened in August. Kansas City has to get to 53 by the NFL deadline, and the projection now on the table suggests a group built around a few notable choices, from carrying three quarterbacks for the first time since 2022 to weaving in recent additions like wide receiver Andrew Armstrong and offensive lineman Josh Ezeudu.
The interesting part is how much of this final cutdown still feels unsettled even after the team has gone through its last preseason test. A detailed roster projection can map out who is likely to stick at each spot, but the Chiefs are still weighing recent performances against depth, versatility and how the new pieces fit once the games start counting. For a team that has spent the summer sorting through competition at multiple positions, the last word on the roster could end up telling the story of how Kansas City wants to open the season. [Read more 🡒]