KC Chiefs: Who is the second best quarterback in Chiefs history

Alex Smith has brought a winning culture to the KC Chiefs. Is that enough to make him the second best starting quarterback in Chiefs history?

When the Kansas City Chiefs traded for Alex Smith in 2013, I was stoked, as I’m sure a good portion of Chiefs Kingdom was. Before Smith had come to town, the quarterback position had been a revolving door in Kansas City.

In fact, after Trent Green was traded, the position was basically a disaster. Matt Cassel had that one good season in 2010, but we all saw that was a fluke the next two seasons.

Obviously, Len Dawson is the best quarterback in franchise history. Dawson is the only Chiefs quarterback to have led the team to a Super Bowl, so I feel like it’s a given that he’s the best. He’s also still the leader in passing yards for the organization, even 42 years after his last snap as a Chief.

With Dawson being the unquestioned best, who is the second best? It’d be between Alex Smith and Trent Green (at least it should be, as Joe Montana only played in Kansas City for two seasons). Well, I was curious as to what Chiefs Kingdom thought, so I put a poll on our Twitter account. The results are below.

Alex Smith won by a pretty decent margin over Trent Green, which I found to be a bit surprising. Smith has been great for the Chiefs, don’t get me wrong, but the amount of haters floating around during his time here has made it seem like people think he sucks.

Smith’s overall resumé in Kansas City is more impressive than Green’s, but Green still is second all-time in passing yards and was probably the more talented player between the two. Green was definitely more injury prone, which is what plagued the end of his Chiefs career.

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Smith has the better Chiefs record at 49-26 (with two games to go in the 2017 season) while Green sat at 48-40 through six seasons. Smith also made it to the playoffs in all but one season during his first four years (we’re still waiting to see what happens in 2017).

Green, meanwhile, made it to the playoffs twice in six years as the KC Chiefs quarterback. Green never really had good defenses to rely on, but he had arguably one of the best offensive lines in the history of football. That meant Green was getting well protected and had time to throw the ball, and that Priest Holmes was always going to have a great game.

Smith didn’t have a good offensive line, but the defense was much better while he was in town. It’s certainly a good point to make that if the Chiefs defense was bad in Smith’s first four years, then the Chiefs would have been a below average team.

Green was capable of putting up points while Smith had help from his defense. If Green didn’t have a good offensive line though, would the 2003 Chiefs have been as good?

So, what do you think, Chiefs Kingdom? Between Alex Smith and Trent Green, who was the second best quarterback in Kansas City Chiefs history?