When Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes went down against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC divisional round, backup quarterback Chad Henne came into the game for basically the entire second quarter. Henne was masterful, leading a 98-yard touchdown drive. But what would have happened at the quarterback position if the unthinkable were to happen and Henne were to exit that game with an injury?
The Chiefs have a number of former quarterbacks on their roster. Whether they played in high school or college. Previously, Travis Kelce has been the emergency backup for Kansas City as a former high school and college quarterback. After his interception against the Giants back in Week 11 of the 2017 NFL season, it seems that Andy Reid has soured on that idea.
Against the Jaguars, Reid told reporters there would have been a different emergency quarterback.
“Yeah, we’ve got a couple (of) guys there that have played quarterback in college,” Reid said. “Number one (Jerick McKinnon) was one of them. It would’ve probably been number one up.”
An offense featuring McKinnon would have looked vastly different than the one featuring Mahomes or Henne. McKinnon was a triple-option quarterback at Georgia Southern, with the majority of his success and production coming in the ground game. He rushed for 3,899 rushing yards and 42 touchdowns during his four-year career. He completed just 31 passes on 72 attempts for 805 yards and 12 touchdowns with four interceptions.
Hopefully, the Chiefs are never put in a situation where they need to deploy McKinnon as the emergency quarterback, but it’s certainly fun to imagine what it might look like with McKinnon at the helm.
