When the Kansas City Chiefs open training camp in St. Joseph, Missouri in two weeks, the quarterback most worth tracking may not be the obvious one. Patrick Mahomes will draw the biggest crowd, and Justin Fields will bring plenty of intrigue, but the player with the widest range of outcomes is rookie Garrett Nussmeier.
Mahomes is still the standard-bearer in Kansas City. Even with a serious knee injury in the picture, the expectation is clear: when he’s healthy, he starts, he plays at a high level, and he remains the franchise centerpiece for years.
Fields, meanwhile, gives the Chiefs a different kind of watchability. His athleticism is unlike anything Kansas City has had in camp under Andy Reid, and Reid previously helped a similar player in Michael Vick find success later in his career.
But Fields is also there for a short-term purpose. He’s insurance if Mahomes isn’t ready to open the season, and he’s trying to rebuild his own career for another starting opportunity somewhere else.
That leaves Nussmeier as the most interesting long view. Mahomes is locked in.
Fields is likely gone by 2027. Nussmeier, drafted 249th overall in the 7th round of the 2026 draft, is the one who could change his standing the most with what happens in camp and the preseason.
His college profile once looked much bigger than that draft slot suggests. After his junior season, Nussmeier was regarded as one of the better quarterback prospects in the country.
He threw for more than 4,000 yards, averaged 311.7 yards per game, posted 29 touchdowns and averaged 7.7 yards per attempt in 13 games. A strong senior year could have pushed him into the top ten.
Instead, his stock crashed.
The reason was a cyst on his spine, believed to have been caused by an injury before his senior season. It brought on severe abdominal pain while he was throwing, and at first it was thought to be an oblique injury.
The pain altered his mechanics and changed the look of his season. He played nine games and finished with 1,927 passing yards, 12 touchdowns, 214.1 yards per game and 6.7 yards per attempt.
Nussmeier later took time off at the end of the season to recover. By the Senior Bowl, he said he was no longer dealing with pain, and he looked much better. In that game, he led two touchdown drives, went 5 of 8 for 57 yards, and added a rushing touchdown and a two-point conversion.
NFL doctors cleared him during the draft process, but the combination of his down senior season, his smaller stature and the uncertainty around the cyst sent him tumbling down the board. Still, the talent he showed during his healthy junior year at LSU is part of the reason he stands out now.
Kansas City has not really had a true developmental quarterback prospect for Andy Reid to mold since drafting Mahomes. The Chiefs have leaned on older backups with more experience than upside, along with undrafted players whose ceilings were limited from the start. Nussmeier gives them something different.
He could show up in camp as a real developmental talent, and there’s even a path where he fits Reid’s offense better than Fields does. Fields has the starting experience Reid likes and the kind of athletic ability that can add another layer to the offense, but Nussmeier may be the cleaner stylistic match for the system Reid has built around Mahomes. That gives him a real chance to emerge as the future of the backup job.
Of course, the other side of that coin is just as real. Reid’s offense is complicated, and Nussmeier could look overwhelmed by it.
He could also end up looking like an undersized rookie fighting Chris Oladokun for the No. 3 job. That wouldn’t erase his long-term potential, but it would widen the questions around him even more.
For the Chiefs, the upside is obvious. If Nussmeier flashes enough in camp and preseason games this year and next, Kansas City could eventually turn him into a much bigger trade return than the draft pick it used to get him. The downside is just as clear: if he struggles against NFL defenses, has trouble with Reid’s system, and can’t stay healthy, the Chiefs may never trust him as their main backup.
So when the reports start rolling in from St. Joseph, Nussmeier is the quarterback to watch.
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