The Kansas City Chiefs have had a clear plan for their QB room ever since they signed Gardner Minshew. Andy Reid and Brett Veach have long adhered to a two-quarterback formula on the 53-man roster, relying on the new emergency rule to cover game days. Patrick Mahomes and Minshew being locked in made Bailey Zappe and Chris Oladokun obvious roster casualties. The question here is: who will be on the practice squad? Well, after Oladokun certainly made himself a fan-favourite after the statement he put out announcing his own waiving.

Oladokun is either putting on a brave face or he’s just genuinely happy to be able to play golf after getting cut.”Bad news: I was waived today. Good news: if I didn’t have the day off today, I wouldn’t have been able to slam dunk a 40 yard wedge shot for birdie.⛳️😂 Excited for the future! #PositiveVibesOnly,” he wrote on X. Talk about positivity.

Undoubtedly, he was going to be cut. It seems like he knew that, too. And when you expect the worst, it doesn’t really get to you. Minshew is arguably one of the best backup QBs Mahomes has ever had. Add in the two-QB Chiefs philosophy, and all you can do is sit back and wait to see your name not be on the 53-man roster. Or, like Oladokun, you go slam dunk a 40-yard wedge shot for birdie.

And he shouldn’t be too worried either. This isn’t uncharted territory for Chris Oladokun. He’s been waived and re-signed before, so the cycle doesn’t rattle him. Odds are he’ll get another look. He’ll either be tucked back onto Kansas City’s practice squad or scooped up by another QB-needy team.

And if you had to guess who’ll make the practice squad, you’d probably go with Chris over Zappe. And the one thing that separates them? Ola’s legs. No QB3 has that stride of pace. So if you think about it, he probably just got a little golf break before he returns to the practice squad. Oh, and he wasn’t the only notable cut. Patrick Mahomes’s team bid adieu to their RB as well.

Fan-favourite RB Carson Steele doesn’t make the 53

The tougher cut came with Carson Steele. He landed on the same waiver sheet as Oladokun, a surprise given how quickly he’d become a Kansas City cult figure. Everyone loved the long hair, the gator lore. More than the myth, he logged real work last fall: 17 appearances, three starts, and the kind of bruising presence that usually keeps you safe from the first round of roster trims.

And he gave Kansas City real, down-to-down production. In his regular-season work last year, he logged 56 carries for 183 yards while bouncing between running back and fullback-style duties. That’s the kind of Swiss-Army contribution that fits how Kansas City morphs week to week. He spent the camp leaning into the same level of versatility.

And it’s clear why he was a fan-favourite. Steele didn’t earn the “folk hero” tag by accident. Last August, he was dragging linebackers in preseason like it was a county fair strongman contest. And when the games mattered, he kept showing up on the dirty downs. Thin lead blocks, short-yardage, special teams collisions. Still, cold math wins in late August, and the team prioritized depth elsewhere.

And Patrick Mahomes wouldn’t like this cut. At least for now, it removes a change-up back for Mahomes, who could double as a lead blocker and special-teams hammer. Also, someone who had just produced a solid cameo in the preseason finale (5 carries for 16 yards vs the Bears). With Isaiah Pacheco locked in as the bell cow and the room shifting toward versatility, KC chose roster math over muscle, and that’s fair. But that doesn’t make it sting any less.