Two Under-the-Radar Auditions to Watch on Each Side of the Ball in Chiefs Preseason Week 1
Garrett Nussmeier and Felix Anudike-Uzomah could not be more different, but Saturday gives both of them something they badly need.
When the Kansas City Chiefs take the field Saturday against the Los Angeles Rams at Arrowhead Stadium, the storyline most people care about is the one that is not there. Patrick Mahomes will almost certainly not play, and since Kansas City plays the Rams in Week 13, it would not shock anyone if he was not the only starter that sits.
That makes it a big day for the backups, the bubble players, and the guys who have been turning heads in St. Joseph but have not yet had a show it in live play.
Kahlil Benson taking first-team reps at right tackle is the obvious one. That competition has become a genuine story, and Saturday will tell us a lot.
But there are two other players whose preseason debuts carry significant weight, and they could not be more different from each other.
One is a seventh-round quarterback who had some draft pedigree, but ultimately plummeted over the weekend back in April. He has a chance to prove he can be Mahomes’ long-term backup in Kansas City.
The other is a former first-round pick who has spent three years trying to become the player everyone thought he would be, and whose NFL future may hinge on what he does this August and the rest of 2026.
For the two of them, it is the same game, but completely different stakes.
Garrett Nussmeier, Quarterback
Let’s start with the offensive one. Nussmeier was one of the more notable draft-day fallers in this year’s class. Some projections had him going as early as the second or third round.
The Chiefs grabbed him in the seventh, and if you needed any evidence that Brett Veach saw value in the seventh round, the early returns from camp have been hard to ignore.
Kansas City has not carried a third quarterback on the 53-man roster since 2023, when they kept Mahomes, Blaine Gabbert, and Shane Buechele. Nussmeier has a chance to change that, and the path to doing so runs directly through the preseason.
With Mahomes almost certainly sitting out every preseason game, and Justin Fields operating as the clear number two, Nussmeier is going to get a lot of football this August.. For a quarterback who was an afterthought on draft day, that is a pretty good runway.
What makes his case interesting is what the coaches are already saying about him.
“Every time he’s in, he moves the ball,” Reid said. “So, I look at that. And then any of the mistakes will correct as we go, but his past production has been really positive. And he gets it; he works hard, his dad’s a coach, and he grew up that way, knowing about detail, and so he’s doing a nice job. We’ve loaded him up. I mean we haven’t pulled back on anything with him, as far as volume, and he’s handled it.”
Nussmeier himself sounds like someone who has fully embraced the sponge role, leaning on the two veterans in the room.
“I’m in such a great room with two great quarterbacks, two great vets in front of me with Justin and Pat,” Nussmeier said. “Just trying to learn everything I can from them, spend as much time as I can around Pat, just seeing his routines and things like that. Just continue to make myself better by being around them.”
He also sounds like someone who is being coached hard on the technical side, which is exactly what you want to hear from a young quarterback in his first camp.
“Learning whatever I can from (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid and one thing they’re on to me a lot about is my feet and just continuing to mature that way, with my eyes and things like that,” Nussmeier said.
If he shows out Saturday and lives up to what the coaches have been describing, the Chiefs are not going to leave him on waivers at cutdown. And if the long-term vision plays out, Kansas City might have a true Mahomes understudy for years, and perhaps a quarterback they could flip well into the future. The job in 2026 is simply to make the 53. Everything else can come later.
Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Defensive End
This one is much different. Nussmeier is playing with house money. Anudike-Uzomah is playing to save his career and shed the first-round bust label, at least to some degree. He has a chance, starting Saturday, to put a different taste in people’s mouths.
The former first-round pick out of Kansas State has had a rough go of it. In his first two seasons, he combined for just three sacks and 25 pressures, and one of the most persistent knocks on him was a noticeable lack of explosion off the ball.
Then 2025 ended before it started after a hamstring injury significant enough to cost him the entire season. Three years in, the patience of even the most optimistic observer has been exhausted.
But here is the thing: the Chiefs need him. Ashton Gillotte has been out with a hamstring issue of his own, which has given Anudike-Uzomah first-team reps in his absence. George Karlaftis anchors the position, and second-round rookie R Mason Thomas is expected to function primarily as a pass rush specialist in year one.
That leaves a real opening for a third reliable edge defender, and right now, Anudike-Uzomah is the most experienced option available.
What has made camp interesting is that the early reviews are legitimately encouraging. Both Reid and Spagnuolo have noted a visible difference in his explosion off the ball, which was the primary concern coming in.
“You can tell that his explosion off the ball is better,” Reid said. “He’s working through just playing, but he’s doing a nice job with it. Way different getting off of the ball. If there was one thing that jumps out at me, it’s that.”
Spagnuolo was equally direct when asked where Anudike-Uzomah stands compared to where they expected him coming into camp.
“I think he’s had a really good camp,” Spagnuolo said. “He’s fought these injuries all the way through … It feels like the healthiest he’s been. He’s been in the system now for a fourth year, so he should know it. I think he’s had some pretty effective, productive plays. I’m hoping that continues.”
Anudike-Uzomah himself has kept it simple.
“I’m learning every day, trying to get better,” he said. “Still a couple of technique areas I need to work on. But good thing it’s camp. Every day at a time, I can get one percent better.”
If the explosion Reid and Spagnuolo are describing translates to a real pass rush threat on Saturday, the Chiefs have something. Even another body to contribute to the run defense would be something.
If he can turn this camp into a legitimate rotational role, he has a chance to parlay three lost years into a second NFL contract, whether that is here or somewhere else in 2027. At minimum, a strong season puts him in the conversation for a prove-it deal. The ceiling is higher than that, but Saturday is where it starts.