Chris Oladokun remains in Kansas City Chiefs camp while the team sorts out its backup quarterback job behind Patrick Mahomes. That decision is headed into three preseason games, with Justin Fields and Garrett Nussmeier taking the lead in the competition.
Patrick Mahomes and Week 1
Patrick Mahomes is expected back from a knee injury in Week 1, which gives the Chiefs a short runway to settle the depth chart behind him. Chris Oladokun started at the end of last season while Mahomes was out, so his presence in camp keeps one familiar option in play while the staff evaluates the newer challengers.
In March, Justin Fields arrived after a minor trade with the New York Jets. Last April, Kansas City drafted Garrett Nussmeier in the seventh round, and that gives the room a clear split between an added veteran and a rookie with draft capital.
Fields and Nussmeier
The Chiefs are using the three preseason games as the sorting mechanism, and that puts Fields and Nussmeier at the center of the job. Oladokun does not need to win the headline to stay relevant; he only needs to keep the evaluation from narrowing too quickly. That is the real roster fight here, and it is more orderly than dramatic.
Nussmeier was once viewed as a top draft option for the 2026 quarterback class before an injury at LSU took him out of the lineup. That background makes his preseason work especially important, because the Chiefs are not just asking who can take snaps now but who can survive as the next layer behind Mahomes when the games start to count.
Andy Reid’s roster call
Andy Reid now has a clean but narrow decision: keep the quarterback room stable enough for Week 1 while deciding whether Oladokun’s holdover value outweighs the newer competition from Fields and Nussmeier. The most practical read is that the Chiefs want one quarterback who can step in without changing the offense and one who can continue developing without forcing the issue too soon.
Whether Chris Oladokun beats out Justin Fields and Garrett Nussmeier for the backup job is the open question, and the next three preseason games will answer it in real time. For the Chiefs, that is the only number that matters right now: one backup spot, three preseason chances, and a depth chart that has to hold until Patrick Mahomes returns in Week 1.
