Getty

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - FEBRUARY 28: Garrett Nussmeier of the Louisiana State Tigers (now of the Kansas City Chiefs) throws a pass during the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 28, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

The Kansas City Chiefs have the best quarterback in the NFL in Patrick Mahomes. The two-time MVP is on a Hall of Fame trajectory and might already be one if he retired tomorrow. But Mahomes is coming off a serious knee injury that puts his availability for the start of the 2026 season in some question, even if the Chiefs are optimistic about his recovery timeline. Kansas City needed strong backup options.

To start, Kansas City traded for Justin Fields from the Jets. The former first-round pick out of Ohio State has bounced around the league a bit, beginning his professional career in Chicago before heading to Pittsburgh then New York. Though Fields hasn’t lived up to his pre-draft potential, he offers a stable floor as a backup with his rushing ability and arm strength.

But the Chiefs also drafted former LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier in the seventh round as a developmental piece. Once a draft darling and the son of Saints OC Doug Nussmeier, Garrett was expected to be drafted much higher than where the Chiefs got him, with some evaluators and league executives viewing him as a potential future starter.

So what happened? One NFL insider believes he has the answer.

Dane Brugler on Why Kansas City Chiefs QB Garrett Nussmeier Fell to the Seventh Round

GettyBATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA – OCTOBER 25: Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier #18 of the LSU Tigers (now of the Kansas City Chiefs) looks to pass during the first half of a game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Tiger Stadium on October 25, 2025 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Tyler Kaufman/Getty Images)

No one covers the draft as well as The Athletic’s Dane Brugler. He spends 18 months evaluating each class and his magnum opus each year, aptly named “The Beast,” is the go-to for information on prospects even among other media draft scouts such as myself.

On Tuesday, Brugler laid out Nussmeier’s story and how the Chiefs ended up with him in the seventh round.

“What a strange path for Nussmeier,” Brugler wrote. “He started building buzz during the 2024 season as a future NFL starter, and several teams gave him first-round grades last summer. He was the highest-graded senior by BLESTO scouting service. However, an injury that never properly healed sidetracked his 2025 season, affecting his productivity and development.”

“Finally healthy again, Nussmeier was the best quarterback at the Senior Bowl. However, according to multiple team sources, his predraft interviews were less than stellar. Still, considering how many fans he had around the league a year ago, it was shocking to see him free-fall on draft weekend.”

Scouting Report on Chiefs QB Garrett Nussmeier

As Brugler said, Nussmeier’s injury (and apparently underwhelming team interviews) primarily contributed to his draft-day fall. But Nussmeier is a smaller quarterback who isn’t a rushing threat and can go through bouts of overly-aggressive turnovers. He was far from a perfect prospect.

But the Chiefs are also getting a player who’s seen a lot of college football and knows how to work the pocket. He’s got a great arm and can rip passes into tight windows before defenders arrive, decimating defenses over the middle of the field. Nussmeier throws with anticipation and ran complex schemes at LSU that will better prepare him for the NFL.

The starter-level upside with Nussmeier is real. At the very least, the Chiefs may have gotten their long-term backup behind Mahomes.