Remembering that the Royals are better than the Chiefs at drafting quarterbacks

We missed an important anniversary over the weekend that reminded us that the Royals are better at drafting quarterbacks than the Chiefs.

When Patrick Mahomes takes the field in Week 1 as the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, it will be a historic occasion.

As we all know by now, Mahomes was the first quarterback taken as a first round investment by K.C. since Todd Blackledge back in ’83, when the team famously skipped over Hall of Fame options like Dan Marino and Jim Kelly. Not only have the Chiefs been plagued by that decision ever since, they’ve been reticent to roll the dice again—perhaps out of fear of missing in another bountiful draft.

What’s a bit crazy (and frustrating) is that none of the Chiefs best quarterbacks of all time have been drafted by the team. Even Len Dawson was taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Joe Montana, Trent Green and even Alex Smith were all veteran imports. It will take very little production for Mahomes to entrench himself as the best drafted quarterback in Chiefs history.

But what we cannot say is that Kansas City is bad at drafting quarterbacks. It’s actually just the Chiefs. Another sports franchise in town has a stellar reputation of drafting quarterbacks, and they even grabbed two Hall of Famers in the same draft. Check this out.

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We missed the anniversary over the weekend of the fated day in 1979, when the Kansas City Royals rounded out their draft class with future Pro Football Hall of Fame members John Elway and Dan Marino. Remember that many high school or even college stars will excel in multiple sports, so it shouldn’t be that surprising that two incredible quarterbacks could also play baseball. It is, however, very interesting that the Royals were in on them both.

The draft itself began with future major leaguer Atlee Hammaker as the team’s first round pick. They also were able to add a couple other future pro players in outfielder Pat Sheridan and reliever Craig Lefferts, but it’s clear that the overall class was a bust given the lack of any real impact at the ML level. Fortunately for Royals history, they can claim the anecdote of two quarterbacks taken.

What’s even more prescient on the Royals side was that neither player was a late round flyer. The Royals took 37 players that spring, and both quarterbacks were taken in the first half of the drat. Elway was a high school outfielder from Northridge, California taken in the 18th round. Marino was even more impressive, taken as a top 100 pick in the entire draft—at 99 overall as a high school pitcher out of Pittsburgh.

Both players spurned the sport to move forward with college football careers and were all the better for it, of course, but it might have worked better for the Chiefs to have just hired the Royals front office for at least a stretch of the team’s history. Perhaps then we wouldn’t be so anxious for Patrick Mahomes.

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