Young QBs who got away

By DAVID MARTIN

Chiefs quarterback Brody Croyle went down with yet another injury in yesterday’s stadium-clearing 34-10 loss. A player with a fragility rep when he entered the league, Croyle has finished only four of the eight games he has started as a Chief.

Croyle’s dainty body parts underscore the organization’s reluctance and/or inability to draft and develop a proper quarterback, as the four most recent Super Bowl winners have done. Instead, under GM Carl Peterson, the Chiefs have tended to find QBs via trade (Trent Green, Steve Bono) and free agency (Elvis Grbac, Rich Gannon). The Chiefs drafted Croyle, but he can’t stay on the field for more than five minutes at a time.

The Indianapolis Colts found their Super Bowl-winning quarterback by being really bad the season before a player of Peyton Manning’s caliber entered the draft. To their credit, the Chiefs don’t routinely go 3-13.

Still, Kansas City has missed opportunities to draft a quarterback of the future. The following is a list of starting QBs age 30 and under who play for NFL teams with .500 or better records and who were available to the Chiefs in the draft. Listed after each quarterback and his draft position and year are the players the Chiefs preferred.