Ranking every Kansas City Chiefs starting quarterback since 1990

13. Tyler Thigpen (2008)

Boy, this one is quite a mixed bag.

On paper, Tyler Thigpen’s stint with the Chiefs (and his entire NFL career) is as forgettable as any. He won only one of his 11 starts for Herm Edwards and showcased unimpressive metrics in most categories. He played only a handful of years in the league, mostly as a backup or third-tier option. He was a seventh-round pick who made it farther than most in such a category.

For those who watched Thigpen, however, there was something far more exciting at work—something a bit more difficult to describe to those who weren’t around. He was inconsistent as hell and prone to turning the ball over. Yet he was also capable of carrying the team on long touchdown drives and making the occasional throw or run that would completely stymie the defense.

In a world in which the competition was Brodie Croyle and Damon Huard, the athleticism of Thigpen was something to behold and gave Chiefs fans real hope that there might be some unearthed gem if only given more playing time. In the end, the mistakes were simply too numerous to allow the Tyler Thigpen experiment to continue, but for a brief period of time, Chiefs fans were ready to pin their hopes on the potential of this Coastal Carolina product. That’s worth remembering from a period in which hope of any kind was hard to find.