Chris Oladokun’s friend, Jake, texted last Saturday night to say he was making the drive from Asheville, North Carolina, to Nashville, where the Chiefs were facing the Tennessee Titans the next day. It would be cool, Jake told him, to see his friend in a Chiefs uniform as the team’s understudy at quarterback.
Chris Oladokun’s friend, Jake, texted last Saturday night to say he was making the drive from Asheville, North Carolina, to Nashville, where the Chiefs were facing the Tennessee Titans the next day. It would be cool, Jake told him, to see his friend in a Chiefs uniform as the team’s understudy at quarterback.
But as Jake entered Nissan Stadium and looked up at the video board, he got an eyeful. There was No. 19 for the Chiefs on the field.
“And he’s like, ‘Is Chris in the game?’” Oladokun said.
Yes, he was. A knee injury to starter Gardner Minshew, who was subbing for the injured Patrick Mahomes, meant the first serious playing time in his NFL career for the former Sickles and Alonso High School standout.
Oladokun has played in numerous preseason games for the Chiefs since joining the team in 2022 and in last season’s regular-season finale at Denver Oladokun logged five mop-up snaps in his NFL debut.
This was different. Oladokun was the man on the spot. It didn’t end in victory, with the Chiefs absorbing a 26-9 loss. But Oladokun received encouraging feedback and personally felt good about his 31-snap appearance. He completed 11 of 16 passes for 111 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
“There’s always something to clean up,” said Oladokun, who played his first three college seasons at USF before finishing at South Dakota State and being a seventh-round draft pick by the Steelers in 2022.
Oladokun said every offensive possession started with teammates providing reassurance, especially guard Trey Smith.
“Every single drive,” Oladokun said. “Trey would look back at me, and he’s like, ‘I’ve got your back.’ It speaks to his character and the whole offense that they rallied behind me like that.”
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said he knew Oladokun was ready soon after entering the game early in the second quarter. The Chiefs had called a play with jet motion, where a slot receiver is moving at full speed across the formation before the snap. But the timing was off.
“What (Oladokun) did was stop him, he stopped the motion, let him get set and got the back in the right spot and made a simple play,” Nagy said. “That speaks to his calm and where he was early in the game.”
Category: General Sports
