Dwayne Bowe recently signed a one day contract to retire with the Chiefs. How should fans remember him based off the quarterbacks he played with?
Dwayne Bowe played with eight quarterbacks during his time with the Kansas City Chiefs, but most of them were below average. Consequently, he is a story of what could have been. At 6’4″, 220 pounds, he was a big-bodied athlete that had a penchant for broken tackles.
The Chiefs’ went a collective 49-79 during his time with the team. Despite the horrible record during his tenure, Bowe put together a string of highly-productive seasons.
The list of Bowe’s accomplishments is actually pretty long. In his eight year career with the Chiefs, he caught 532 passes, amassed 7,155 yards receiving, and had 44 receiving touchdowns. Currently, he only trails Otis Taylor and Tony Gonzalez in career receiving marks for the franchise.
The highlight of his career was the 2010 season where he led the league in touchdowns with 15, on top of catching 72 passes for 1,162 yards. He was considered one of the best receivers that year and was named second-team All Pro.
Surprisingly, Bowe doesn’t have the greatest reputation amongst Chiefs’ fans any longer. There’s likely a couple reasons for this, but I think it mainly stems from Bowe’s lackadaisical nature once Andy Reid came to town.
Right off the bat John Dorsey gave Bowe a major contract, and Bowe was finally a part of a stable organization. He even went so far as to talk trash during the 2013 offseason, claiming he’d lead the league in receiving. But once the season started, it looked like he didn’t care. All the good karma he built up from prior years vanished pretty quickly. He was a productive receiver, yes, who also dropped some memorable passes and had a questionable work ethic. There’s also that suspension for marijuana possession.
Not to make excuses for Bowe, but he wasn’t exactly given the best shake either. Bowe was the unfortunate victim of a string of poor to average quarterbacks. Say what you will about the negatives, but it’s still hard to not be impressed with how productive he was on such poor teams with such pitiful passers.
Need a reminder? Let’s look back at eight quarterbacks who Bowe caught passes from—starting at the beginning of his career through the end.
Brodie Croyle
Wow, where to begin with Brodie Croyle? For whatever reason, the Chiefs simply gave up on drafting quarterbacks in a reasonable round for a very long time. Croyle was the first QB the Chiefs had drafted in the first three rounds in 15 years.
Croyle was the first drafted quarterback fans could even get moderately excited about in a long time. The problem was, he wasn’t that exciting. He was a good quarterback in college, holding most of the passing records at the time for the Alabama Crimson Tide, but this was before Nick Saban came to town.
Any moderate excitement was quickly silenced. In five years with the team, Croyle only played in 19 games. In those games he threw more interceptions than touchdowns and completed a paltry 57 percent of his passes. Herm Edwards and eventually Todd Haley were never able to get much out of him.
Croyle finished his career with an 0-10 record as a starter—not a single win to his name. The only other quarterbacks in NFL to never win a game and yet lose that man: Zach Mettenberger (also 0-10 as a starter) and DeShone Kizer (0-15, the all-time worst).
Specifically, in Bowe’s rookie year, Croyle started six games and played in nine games total. In those nine games he averaged 136 yards passing, less than one touchdown, and the exact same number of interceptions. It’s pretty obvious that Bowe didn’t have much to work with.
The next player on the list of eight quarterbacks started the other part of Bowe’s rookie season, so let’s take a look at how he differed.
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.
Tyler Thigpen
Tyler Thigpen is another player who, despite the lack of game changing ability and wins, I remember quite fondly. He was merely a blip on the franchise’s timeline, relatively speaking, but you always felt like he competed in every play like it was his last. Playing on losing teams can be tough, so his hard work in the midst of that was admirable.
Thigpen played three years total for the Chiefs, but it was his second year with the team I remember most. It was the 2008 season, in which Thigpen started 11 games and played in a total of 14.
Of the three quarterbacks mentioned so far, he gave the best effort. In those games he averaged 186 yards, threw 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. On top of this, he rushed for 386 yards and three touchdowns. These weren’t incredible numbers, but they were impressive numbers for a second year player out of Coastal Carolina.
However, once again Bowe was faced with average passing at best, and Thigpen’s completion rate of 55% didn’t help. Ultimately, the team only won one of the 11 games in which Thigpen started, although they were competitive in many of them thanks to Thigpen, and won two games total for the year.
Even so, Bowe surpassed his prior year in all major categories. He caught 86 passes for 1,022 yards and seven touchdowns. These numbers should be appreciated, given he had nearly strung together two straight 1,000 yard seasons to start his career without any consistency from his quarterbacks.
Matt Cassel
This brings us to Matt Cassel, a player who by the end of his career had drawn the unfettered wrath of the Chiefs’ fan base. When Cassel was knocked out in 2012, you could even hear some fans cheering his injury.
Reflecting back on this, I don’t think it was just because of his play. I think it was in part that the fan base had endured such poor play at the position for so long and it finally came to a head with Cassel. No one should cheer anyone’s injury at any time, but it did reflect long-held frustrations about the position.
Either way, outside of 2010, Cassel’s four seasons with the team were inconsistent at their best and below average at their worst. In total, he started in 47 games and played in 48 total. He averaged 199 yards passing per game and threw 59 touchdowns and 44 interceptions in total.
What’s pretty incredible to reflect on is, that despite how poorly fans remember Cassel and rightfully so, he was arguably the best of the quarterbacks Bowe played with in the first six years of his career. Let that sink in for a moment.
Even so, he still averaged nearly 1,000 yards receiving and seven touchdowns per season. These numbers aren’t All Pro, but they’re pretty impressive given the caliber of quarterback play.
What’s more incredible, is that his situation would get much worse before it got better.
Tyler Palko
Next on the list is luckily a very short stint in both Bowe’s playing history and the Chiefs’ franchise in general. Tyler Palko only played two years for the Chiefs and it’s pretty obvious why.
Honestly, there’s not much here to talk about. Between 2010 and 2011, Palko started four games and played in eight total. He averaged 104 yards passing per game and threw two touchdowns next to seven interceptions.
These were some dark times in terms of Chiefs’ quarterbacks.
Kyle Orton
As weird as it is to say, because he wasn’t great, Kyle Orton was a breath of fresh air for the Chiefs. The Chiefs signed Orton halfway through the 2011 season and he was downright serviceable.
In the four games he played in he completed 61 percent of his passes for nearly 800 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. It wasn’t so much his stats that made me optimistic as much as it was apparent he was a somewhat consistent and experienced quarterback.
Unfortunately for the Chiefs, their fans, and Bowe the front office decided to stick with Cassel in 2012 and let Orton walk.
Brady Quinn
I’m not sure why, but I was optimistic when the Chiefs signed Brady Quinn. Maybe it was because Quinn was a former first round pick who had a pretty successful college career, or maybe I just thought things couldn’t get any worse.
However, get worse they did. In 2012, Quinn started eight games and played in 10 total. In those 10 games he average 114 yards passing, threw two touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Ultimately, the Chiefs finished the season 2-14. Bowe had a down year, by his standards, but his stats were still respectable given the atrocious quarterback play. He caught 59 passes for 801 yards and three touchdowns.
Thankfully for the Chiefs, their fans, and Bowe things were about to get a lot better.
Alex Smith
Finally, we get to the part of the story where everyone, at least for the most part, is happy. For Chiefs’ Kingdom, and Dwayne Bowe, Alex Smith was a huge leap forward at the quarterback position.
Make no mistake, Smith was never an elite passer during Bowe’s career. However, he was the definition of a leader on and off the field and an incredibly consistent presence for the Chiefs that they hadn’t had in years. For all of his flaws, he was one of my favorite players on the team during his five year tenure with the Chiefs.
Oddly enough, the rise of the Chiefs as perennial playoff contenders with Smith at the helm saw the decline of Bowe’s overall performance. As I stated earlier, I think this is why fans mostly remember Bowe negatively. While he seemingly busted his tail for the team for six years, once he finally had the opportunity to catch passes from a consistent quarterback and play on a great team he seemed to quit trying.
Specifically, the 2014 season was the worst overall of his career. While he still was moderately productive with 764 yards receiving, he didn’t catch a single touchdown. This was actually the season the Chiefs as a franchise didn’t have a single wide receiver touchdown the whole season.
You could blame Smith for this happening, given his ultra-conservative style of play, and you might be slightly right. However, it was obvious that Bowe wasn’t working hard anymore. Sadly, if he wasn’t targeted early or often he seemed to give up. So, he’s mostly remembered for his decline and not his hard work in the midst of losing.
Conclusion:
The list of Dwayne Bowe’s accomplishments is pretty long, all things considered. Yet, he still seems like a story of what could of been. He had all the size and athleticism that teams normally covet in a wide receiver. Even more, he endured years of sub par quarterback play and still was a very productive threat at wide receiver.
Still, fans should remember Dwayne Bowe’s career in context. He finished his career as the third leading receiver in franchise history, despite playing five of his eight season with subpar (or even historically bad) passers throwing him the ball. It’s the reason the Chiefs recently brought him back and honored him by letting him retire as one of their own.