August 2024: Freshly waived by the Kansas City Chiefs, Chris Oladokun let himself feel down for a precisely short moment. While the first week saw him moping around, by Week 2, he was up and running. The quarterback would show up to the local bar to hang out with friends. Every Sunday, as the action unfolded on the gridiron, he’d promise he’d be back there, too. In less than two months, Oladokun was somewhat back, a practice squad re-signing by Andy Reid. But it wasn’t until Week 17 this season that the 28-year-old was back in a fashion that actually mattered and even drew comparisons with Patrick Mahomes in the process.

The play in question, notably, happened with 14:12 left in the third quarter against the Denver Broncos this Thursday. On a 2nd & 7 play at Kansas’ 40, Broncos linebacker Nik Bonitto shook off left tackle Esa Pole to dash toward Oladokun. This resulted in the quarterback darting toward the left to escape the pocket, almost committing a crucial faux pas in the process. In the blink of an eye, the ball fell to the ground in a near-sure turnover. However, Oladokun swooped in immediately, recovering the fumble. Defensive tackle Malcolm Roach followed him and tried to sack him, but the backup quarterback threw a 12-yard pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster for a first down.

“Yeah, it’s definitely one of those, ‘Oh s–t!’ moments,” the signal caller said after the game. “Just fumbled the ball, and I feel like one of the best parts of my game is sort of just staying poised in those situations. JuJu was always working. Saw it a couple times a night and he was working for me and it was bad play turn good.”

The completion moved the chains and sent Arrowhead into a frenzy. It was the kind of improvisation that has defined the Chiefs’ offense for years. Except this time, it came from the third-string signal-caller making his first career start.

Later, even veteran tight end Travis Kelce couldn’t help but laugh at the memorable recovery.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone try to draw the defense to them by fumbling it,” he joked after the game. “That was like a little yo-yo trick he put on. I’m proud of his attention to detail, his professionalism and his leadership throughout the week. I couldn’t be happier for the guy. Obviously, I wish we could’ve gotten that win for him [in] a big game against a rival. I’m proud of the way he led us and kept fighting.”

While the Broncos snapped a nine-game losing streak at Arrowhead Stadium that began in 2016 on Thursday, Oladokun’s day was better than expected.

Despite being thrust into a difficult situation with key starters missing, the quarterback held his own at crucial moments and avoided any catastrophic errors, zero interceptions being one of them.

He also threw his first career touchdown pass during the game, a 5-yarder to Brashard Smith with 12:49 remaining in the second quarter that helped the Chiefs move ahead 7-3.

In fact, despite less than two minutes and only one timeout remaining, Oladokun was able to get the ball to the opponents’ 21-yard line. While that final pass ended up being too high for wide receiver Hollywood Brown, the quarterback still showed he’s capable of being a quality player.

Overall, the player completed 13-of-22 passes for 66 yards. He also ran for 11 yards on two carries.

Because like The Athletic‘s Michael Charles said, “This was a bad situation all around, and to be fair to Oladokun, not many third-string quarterbacks could have done much more.”