If you had Chris Oladokun on your bingo card to be the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs in this or any other lifetime, stop reading IMMEDIATELY and buy a Powerball ticket. You have cornered the market on lucky stars.
The former South Florida Bull was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight last Sunday when quarterback Gardner Minshew was injured against Tennessee and declared out for the season. Minshew is playing because Patrick Mahomes is also out for the season.
And therein lies the tale. Oladokun will make his first NFL start on Christmas night at 8:15 p.m. against Denver. That development has sent sports writers everywhere rushing to Google to learn just who this guy is.
Oladokun came to USF from Tampa's Sickles and Alonso high Schools . He played nine games for the Bulls from 2017-18 and if you can remember him without looking up his totals, then you are most definitely a hard-core Bulls fan. In 2018, he actually played enough to get grass stain on his uniform, appearing in seven games and throwing 44 passes while completing 22 with three touchdowns.
He then spent two years at Samford before transferring to South Dakota State. He was pretty darned good there. He threw for 3,164 yards and 25 touchdowns, which got the attention of the Pittsburgh Steelers. They took him in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL draft.
He has spent the last two seasons with the Chiefs before fate tapped him on his shoulder pads. He had not thrown an NFL pass before completing 11 of 16 attempts for 111 yards against the Titans. He was sacked four times.
“I thought he did okay,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “He was able to get us moving a little bit,probably could have given him better stuff to work with, particular get him more repsduring the week. He didn’t have any reps, but I thought for what he was asked to do, I thought he did a nice job.“
Oladokun is scheduled to start the Chiefs final two games. Kansas City will miss the playoffs for the first time since Methuselah was in diapers.
Chris Oladokun said he checked his phone after the game, and the first text he saw was from Patrick Mahomes.
— Sam McDowell (@SamMcDowell11) December 21, 2025
Of the many reactions to his performance against the Titans, one was particularly meaningful to him. It came in the form of a text message from Mahomes.
“Dude, I checked my phone, he was the first dude that texted me,” Oladokun told reporters after the game. “He’s the first dude to help someone out and lend a helping hand. In past preseasons and stuff like that, he’s always in the QB’s ear, whether it’s me or Gardner. Everyone misses his presence."