What Chris Oladokun said about becoming the KC Chiefs’ starting quarterback
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Oladokun entered after QB injuries and completed 11 of 16 passes for 111 yards.
- Chiefs coaches praised his calm and timely in-game adjustments.
- He will start on Christmas night after first-team snaps; Buechele signed as backup.
Chris Oladokun’s friend Jake texted last Saturday night to say he was making the drive from Asheville, North Carolina, to Nashville, where the Chiefs were facing the Tennessee Titans the next day. It would be cool, Jake told him, to see his friend in a Chiefs uniform as the team’s understudy at quarterback.
But as Jake entered Nissan Stadium and looked up at the video board, he got an eyeful. There was No. 19 for the Chiefs on the field.
“And he’s like, ‘Is Chris in the game?’” Oladokun said.
Yes, he was. A knee injury to starter Gardner Minshew, who was subbing for the injured Patrick Mahomes, meant the first serious playing time for Oladokun in his NFL career.
He has played in numerous preseason games for the Chiefs since joining the team in 2022, and in last season’s regular-season finale at Denver, Oladokun logged five mop-up snaps in his NFL debut.
This was different. Oladokun was the man on the spot. It didn’t end in victory with the Chiefs absorbing a 26-9 loss. But Oladokun received encouraging feedback and personally felt good about his 31-snap appearance. He completed 11 of 16 passes for 111 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
“There’s always something to clean up,” Oladokun said. “But for a first outing, I felt really proud of myself. And not only in myself, but the guys were awesome with me.”
Oladokun said every offensive possession started with teammates providing reassurance, especially guard Trey Smith.
“Every single drive,” Oladokun said. “Trey would look back at me, and he’s like, ‘I’ve got your back.’ It speaks to his character and the whole offense that they rallied behind me like that.”
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said he knew Oladokun was ready soon after entering the game early in the second quarter. The Chiefs had called a play with jet motion, where a slot receiver is moving at full speed across the formation before the snap. But the timing was off.
“What (Oladokun) did was stop him, he stopped the motion, let him get set and got the back in the right spot and made a simple play,” Nagy said. “That speaks to his calm and where he was early in the game.”
Just as last weekend’s experience was new, so is this. For the first time, Oladokun enters the Christmas night home game against the Denver Broncos having taken all the snaps this week as the starting quarterback.
“There’s a little more electricity because I’m the guy actually going through it,” Oladokun said.
He’ll lean on the lessons learned, mostly as the third-team quarterback, from players like Mahomes and Chad Henne, and even Shane Buechele. A Chiefs backup in 2021, 2022 and in training camp in 2023, Buechele was signed this week from the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad to serve as Oladokun’s backup.
“When I first got here, I was sitting next to (Mahomes) every single day,” Oladokun said. “And I’d watch how he goes about his work.”
At practice, it will be less observation and more action for Oladokun.
“When they call the first group at practice, I won’t be the one sitting there,” he said. “I’ll actually be running out there.”