Some numbers are truly ripe. You squeeze them, and great stories come pouring out. That's true of No. 19, a slice of Kansas City Chiefs history that includes the team's brief dalliance with national prominence between Len Dawson and Patrick Mahomes. It also includes the team's first actual quarterback, a mercurial wideout, some impressive relief kicking, and so much more. We're charting every number's history from 1 to 99. Here's No. 19.
The complete history of Chiefs players to wear No. 19
The Best: Joe Montana
Montana wasn't a long-term fixture in Kansas City by any means, but no two-year rental has ever meant more to the franchise. He went 17-8 as the starter, threw for 5,427 yards and 29 touchdowns against 16 interceptions, and made the Pro Bowl in 1993 despite missing five games. Those are solid numbers for a quarterback pushing 38 years of age, but the box score was never really the point.
Montana led back-to-back comeback playoff wins over the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Oilers in '93 to deliver the first AFC Championship Game appearance in franchise history. Remember that the Chiefs had won exactly one playoff game since Super Bowl IV. And for one last flourish, he out-dueled John Elway in a 1994 Monday Night Football classic in Denver, marching the Chiefs downfield for the winning score in the final minute of a 31-28 win that still gets replayed every time the two franchises meet in primetime.
That Montana even wore this number is a result of his greatness. The Chiefs offered him No. 3 and No. 16—both jerseys that were already retired—since the former was his college number at Notre Dame and the latter his number with the Niners. Kicker Jan Stenerud and quarterback Len Dawson both agreed to let him wear it, if he so chose, but Montana declined to honor the legacies of both in Kansas City. Thus, he took No. 19.
For a short spell, Kansas City was a true primetime draw with Super Bowl aspirations with Montana under center—a feeling that wouldn't come around again for a few more decades.
The First Quarterback: Cotton Davidson
Before Mahomes or Montana or Dawson, there was Cotton Davidson, the franchise's quarterback who stood under center when the Dallas Texans beat the Oakland Raiders in 1960 for the first win in team history. Davidson threw for 2,474 yards and 15 touchdowns that inaugural season and made two AFL All-Star Games. However, his greatest impact was felt upon his departure from the organization. Once Hank Stram signed Len Dawson in 1962, Lamar Hunt shipped Davidson to Oakland in exchange for the first overall pick in the 1963 draft, a selection used on Grambling defensive tackle Buck Buchanan. Davidson was a solid performer, but his departure paved the way for a Hall of Fame cornerstone on defense.
The Tampering Charge: Jeremy Maclin
The Jeremy Maclin signing made all the sense at the time. In 2015, the Chiefs were coming off of a season in which no single wide receiver caught a touchdown—a remarkable stat that caught everyone's attention. Maclin was viewed as a likely savior, a local product and Missouri star who would reunite with Andy Reid and change the narrative. Maclin produced right away with 87 catches for 1,088 yards and 8 touchdowns. That was the first 1,000-yard season by a Chiefs receiver since Dwayne Bowe in 2011. But things went south quickly. The NFL ruled the Chiefs had tampered with Maclin in free agency and removed a 2016 third-round selection and a 2017 sixth-round pick from their draft hauls. A groin injury limited Maclin's second season, and then came the weird exit. On June 2, 2017, general manager John Dorsey cut Maclin via a voicemail message (poor form) left while he was on a flight to a teammate's football camp. Twenty days later, Dorsey was gone, too.
The Mercurial One: Kadarius Toney
No number has ever endured a greater emotional range in such a short span at No. 19 than the Kadarius Toney experience. In Super Bowl LVII, Toney gave the Chiefs their first lead of the game on a fourth-quarter touchdown catch and then set a Super Bowl record with a 65-yard punt return. It's too bad the good times basically ended there. Mental miscues (including the offsides call that ruined Travis Kelce's lateral touchdown against Buffalo), durability concerns, and dropped passes were consistent storylines with Toney away from those epic plays. The juice was always worth the squeeze, since his electric talents were elite even among NFL athletes, but the story should have had a happier ending.
The Long-Term Developmental Arm: Chris Oladokun
The Pittsburgh Steelers technically landed Chris Oladokun first, when they selected him as a seventh-round pick in '22 out of South Dakota State. But his failure to make the active roster worked in K.C.'s favor when they grabbed him for the practice squad. He's been at Arrowhead ever since, bouncing from the practice squad to the active roster at various point before getting his first real action in relief of injured quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Gardner Minshew in a disastrous 2025 season. Showed real moxie despite being outmatched and deserves respect for his gutsy performances.
Et Cetera
- Josh Gordon, WR - Hopes were higher for Gordon when he signed after returning from his sixth suspension, but he did score his first touchdown in over 800 days with the Chiefs.
- C.J. Spiller, RB - Signed and released a handful of times in the course of a year (2017-18) as the Chiefs dealt with RB depth concerns.
- Devon Wylie, WR - The 2012 fourth-rounder billed as the next Dexter McCluster lasted six games and returned nine punts.
- Marcus Kemp, WR - The undrafted Hawaii signing caught 4 passes over five seasons in K.C., but earned two rings as a special teams ace.
- Matt Ammendola, K - Filled in for Harrison Butker for two games in '22 and scored 12 points.
- Matthew Wright, K - Signed off the street when Butker's ankle gave out and broke the franchise record with a 59-yard field goal.
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