The Tradition That Started With Henne
In 2018, when the Kansas City Chiefs signed Chad Henne as a free-agent backup, Patrick Mahomes — then a second-year player who had not yet started a game — sent Henne a text the day the deal was announced. Henne later told ESPN's Adam Teicher that the message was three sentences long and welcomed him to the QB room with a specific note about how Mahomes valued the veteran's anticipation work in clutch situations. Eight years later, Mahomes has now sent a similar message to every quarterback the Chiefs have drafted, signed, or traded for. The tradition is not a Reid-mandate; it is a Mahomes habit, and it predates him being a Super Bowl MVP.
What the Message Looks Like
Mahomes' messages have a recognizable shape. They are short — typically three or four sentences. They open with a personal welcome, mention something specific about the new QB's college tape, and close with an offer to fly the new player to Kansas City for an unofficial pre-camp throwing session. The throwing-session offer is the part that matters most. Mahomes runs his own offseason QB camp at his home in Texas every June. He has invited every Chiefs-drafted QB since 2019 to that camp, and most accept. Garrett Nussmeier reportedly accepted within an hour of receiving the text on Saturday evening.
Why Reid Lets It Happen
Andy Reid does not formally direct the Mahomes-mentorship tradition, but he protects it. Reid's coaching philosophy has always centered on QB-room cohesion: he has cited the Brett Favre / Aaron Rodgers transition in Green Bay (which Reid was on the staff for) as the model he wants to avoid. The 2018 Mahomes / Smith handoff worked precisely because Alex Smith and Mahomes spent every offseason throwing together. Reid wants Mahomes to be both the franchise quarterback AND the de facto QB-room culture leader. The Mahomes texts to incoming QBs are how that culture gets transmitted. Mahomes is, effectively, doing Reid's coaching-staff work for him, on his own time and dime.
The Henne Comparison Matters
Garrett Nussmeier's profile reads more like Chad Henne's than any of the QBs Reid has drafted in between. Both are placement-accurate pocket passers without elite mobility. Both are sons of college coaches. Both arrive in Kansas City as long-shot career backups. Henne's career arc — eight seasons in Kansas City as the QB2, one Divisional Round playoff start in 2020 against the Browns when Mahomes left with a concussion — is exactly the career arc Nussmeier is now contracted into. The Mahomes text on Saturday night, per multiple reports, included a specific reference to that career arc, which Nussmeier later described as ‘the most validating thing anyone has said to me in months.’
What Comes Next
Nussmeier flies to Kansas City on Tuesday for the formal team welcome. He will then fly to Texas in late June for the Mahomes camp, which has been informally scheduled to include Carson Beck (Cardinals) and Drew Allar (Steelers) as guest invitees — Mahomes has expanded the camp in recent years to include rival-team young quarterbacks, treating the QB position as a brotherhood that supersedes the franchise rivalry. The Chiefs roster move that lets Nussmeier into the actual QB-room dynamic happens in late July at training camp. By Week 1 of the 2026 season, Mahomes-Nussmeier will be the third-longest Chiefs QB pairing of the Reid era, behind only Mahomes-Henne and Smith-Mahomes itself.