Chiefs Draft Garrett Nussmeier: The Smartest 7th-Round Quarterback Bet in Recent Memory
LSU's Garrett Nussmeier went 249th overall to Kansas City — health flags and all. With elite football bloodlines, real college production, and the best quarterback mentor alive, this late-round bet looks smarter than it sounds.
Late-round quarterback selections are usually footnotes. The seventh round is where dreams go to develop slowly, then fade quietly. But when the Kansas City Chiefs select a quarterback in Round 7, it's worth paying close attention — because Kansas City doesn't make organizational mistakes at that position.
Garrett Nussmeier to Kansas City isn't a throwaway pick. It's a chess move by the most quarterback-savvy organization in the NFL.
The Pick That Looks Like a Bargain
Garrett Nussmeier went 249th overall — dead last in the practical sense, a number that would ordinarily invite skepticism. But the profile here is unusual. In nine games for LSU in 2025, Nussmeier threw for 1,927 yards, 12 touchdowns, and just 5 interceptions. For a player taken this late, those numbers represent legitimate efficiency at a high level of competition.
His pedigree runs deep. His father, Doug Nussmeier, is the New Orleans Saints' offensive coordinator and a former NFL player himself. Garrett grew up in football — not as a hobby, but as an education. He understands coverages, knows how to manipulate defenders, and has spent his entire life around coaches who see the game the way the Chiefs need their quarterbacks to see it.
The fit isn't coincidental. When Nussmeier called Kansas City "a great spot," that wasn't media-trained deflection. It was an accurate read.
The Health Flags Are Real — And They're Not Disqualifying
Full transparency: Nussmeier came into the NFL Combine with health concerns that caused teams to pause. A spine cyst, oblique pain, and patellar tendon issues all surfaced during medical evaluations. On paper, that's a lot.
But the critical detail is that all three conditions were asymptomatic before the Senior Bowl and throughout Nussmeier's final college season. These aren't recurring injuries that followed him around the field — they're findings that showed up on an imaging table. The Chiefs' medical staff had full access to his records, evaluated the risks thoroughly, and still took him in the seventh round. That's not negligence. That's a calculated decision by an organization that has a historic track record of developing quarterbacks.
In the seventh round, teams aren't drafting certainties. They're drafting upside. The health flags reduce the ceiling risk slightly; they don't eliminate the opportunity entirely.
What His Role Actually Looks Like
Let's be clear about what Nussmeier is and isn't walking into. He is not the heir apparent waiting for Patrick Mahomes to decline. He's not a starter-in-waiting being groomed to take over the moment Mahomes shows any sign of slippage. What he is: a developmental backup who will sit behind the greatest quarterback of his generation and absorb everything an elite NFL system has to teach.
That's actually the best possible situation for a late-round prospect. No pressure, maximum learning, elite infrastructure. The Chiefs run one of the most quarterback-friendly systems in football. Their offensive coaches know how to develop passers. And Mahomes himself — fiercely competitive, obsessively prepared — sets an example that rubs off on the people around him.
The last quarterback Kansas City developed quietly in the background eventually became a starter elsewhere. The organization has a pattern of doing this right.
Why This Is the Smartest 7th-Round Bet in Years
The math on seventh-round picks is brutal. Most never play a meaningful regular-season snap. But Nussmeier checks boxes that very few late-round quarterbacks ever check simultaneously: legitimate college production, elite football bloodlines, a scheme-friendly throwing style, and a landing spot with world-class quarterback mentorship built in.
The health flags create a discount. The talent creates the opportunity. The destination creates the development path. That trifecta at pick 249 is genuinely rare.
If Nussmeier stays healthy and absorbs what Kansas City has to teach him, he could become a legitimate NFL backup — the kind who extends a career, starts a few games cleanly when needed, and gives an organization flexibility. In a league where backup quarterbacks command real market value, developing one internally for a seventh-round investment is an enormous win.
The Bottom Line
Kansas City didn't draft Garrett Nussmeier to fill a roster spot. They drafted him because they saw something — in his production, his football IQ, and his DNA — worth developing behind the best quarterback alive. When the Chiefs make a seventh-round quarterback bet, the rest of the league should take notes.