Dwayne Bowe and the Chiefs pitiful carousel of quarterbacks during his career

Damon Huard

I’ll be honest, I have a soft spot for Damon Huard. He wasn’t a spectacular NFL quarterback, but he definitely had his moments—like taking over for an injured Trent Green, playing fairly well, and leading the Chiefs to the playoffs. However, these special moments were in 2006, the year before Bowe was drafted by the Chiefs.

Huard was a career backup for a reason. He obviously had talent, as anyone who makes it to the professional level does, but he didn’t have the talent to consistently make the players around him better.

In Bowe’s rookie season, Huard fared slightly better than Croyle. He started 10 games, playing in 11 total. In those 11 games he averaged 205 yards passing per game, had 11 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Even with subpar quarterback play, on top of being a rookie in one of the most grueling professional sports, Bowe still had a very productive rookie campaign. He caught 70 passes for 995 yards and five touchdowns. It’s pretty amazing to think with such poor quarterbacks throwing him the ball he still nearly broke 1,000 yards receiving and he was rewarded by being named to the 2007 NFL All-Rookie team.

There is not much else to say about Croyle and Huard. Croyle played three more seasons, but never developed any consistency. Huard hung up his cleats in 2008 after only playing in five games. Neither can be said to have made Bowe’s job easy. However, there’s an argument to be made that most of their success is thanks to him.