In this series, I will be looking at the history of coaches, quarterbacks, rushers, and receivers for all 32 franchises. For coaches and quarterbacks, I will be looking at how much their franchise’s career records (regular season only) would change if we removed the games with that person. For rushers and receivers, I will note how many times that player was the team’s leading rusher/receiver over the course of their time with that franchise (regular plus postseason).

Previous Teams:

AFC East: Dolphins, Bills, Jets, and Patriots
NFC East: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, and Redskins
AFC North: Steelers, Browns, Ravens, and Bengals
NFC North: Packers, Vikings, Bears, and Lions
AFC South: Jaguars, Colts, Texans, and Titans
NFC South: Panthers, Falcons, Saints, and Buccaneers
AFC West: Raiders
NFC West: Seahawks

The Chiefs have had 5 great head coaches in their history, and four of them were very good with Kansas City. Hank Stram, of course, was the team’s original coach and led them to three championships, including a victory in Super Bowl IV.   The other Chiefs coaches have much less notable postseason records.

• Marty Schottenheimer ranks 4th all-time in playoff losses, with 13, and is the head coach with the worst playoff record in NFL history. He’s also been more successful with more quarterbacks than any coach in history. He was the Chiefs head coach for 10 years, and the team went 3-7 in the playoffs during that decade.
• Andy Reid is the team’s current head coach, and he ranks second to Schottenheimer in regular season wins among head coaches who have never won a championship.  Reid is 12-14 in the postseason, and that is the most playoff wins by any coach who has never won it all.  Reid has been Kansas City’s head coach the last 6 years, and the team is 2-5 in the postseason under his watch.  At times, it’s very difficult to tell where Reid’s legacy starts and Schottenheimer’s stops.
• Dick Vermeil, like Reid, was a consistent playoff head coach and one-time Super Bowl loser in Philadelphia before joining the Chiefs.  Vermeil won a Super Bowl in St. Louis, of course, and in 5 years as Chiefs head coach his team ranked second in the NFL in points scored.  Playoff success never reached those Chiefs, however.
• And maybe there’s something in the water in Kansas City, because Marv Levy is the other great head coach who spent time with the Chiefs.  Levy coached the team from ’78 to ’82, before overseeing the NFL’s only team to ever lose in four straight Super Bowls.

So who was the best coach in Chiefs history, at least in the regular season?  Stram, Schottenheimer, and Reid all have strong arguments: Reid has the best winning percentage but the shortest tenure, Stram has the longest tenure and the most wins of any Chiefs head coach but the lowest winning percentage of the three, and Schottenheimer is in the middle of both. Due to longevity, my system picks Stram as the franchise’s best regular season coach ever, but it’s close.  Reid currently fares better as an Eagles head coach, too, but a couple more strong seasons in Kansas City could change Reid’s legacy on both fronts. He already has had more success with two franchises than all but a handful of head coaches.

The question as to who is the team’s best quarterback is a lot easier to answer: it’s Len Dawson. Kansas City has had success with a number of ex-49ers quarterbacks, and Patrick Mahomes is off to a fantastic start to his young career. But it’s going to take a long time before Mahomes can dethrone Dawson for the title of best Kansas City quarterback. More immediately, Mahomes brought an end to one of my favorite stats: until he won his first start, this Todd Blackledge-led victory over the Chargers in 1987 was the last time a quarterback drafted by the Chiefs was the starting quarterback in a Kansas City victory.  Blackledge, drafted with the 7th pick in the 1st round of the ’83 Draft, went 13-11 as the team’s starter.

The Chiefs have been blessed with a number of Hall of Fame caliber running backs. Jamaal Charles was a YPC machine, Larry Johnson had a dominant run from ’05 to ’07 where he led the NFL in rushing yards per game, and Priest Holmes averaged 137 yards from scrimmage with 1.4 TDs per game in 62 games from ’01 to ’05. Christian Okoye led the NFL in rushing yards as a Chief, and Marcus Allen led the NFL in rushing touchdowns in Kansas City.

So who was the best RB in Kansas City history? Well, Charles led the team in rushing yards most often, at 71 games, and given his overall success with the team, he’s a pretty good answer.

At wide receiver, the team’s history is much less impressive. There’s Otis Taylor and not much else, although Tony Gonzalez counts under the broader definition used here. Dwayne Bowe ranks third in franchise history in number of games as the team’s leading receiver, which should tell you all you need to know.

That’s it for the Chiefs version of this series. Please leave your thoughts in the comments.