Most of them weren’t horrible, in fact some of them were very good for us (Montana, Trent Green, Dave Krieg, Steve DeBerg, even Elvis Grbac wasn’t abysmal). The problem was that they were short-term solutions and Carl Peterson has been incapable of finding a QB in the draft to provide a long-term solution. I don’t think it’s a matter of Peterson making a conscious decision to never draft a young QB so he can “sell out the stadium”, I think it’s a matter of Carl Peterson simply having no clue what to look for in a rookie QB in the draft. If you look at the QBs Peterson has drafted that flopped (Elkins, Blundin, Stenstrom, Matthews) all of them were either average or slightly above-average QBs in college who had trouble completing a high percentage of passes, and historically those kind of QBs have trouble making the transition to the pros. Yet Peterson keeps drafting or picking up that kind of young QB (Croyle and Thigpen are also in that mold) and expecting different results. That’s not a sign to me that Peterson is trying to rip off the fans, that’s a sign to me that he doesn’t have any clue of what to look for in a rookie quarterback.

As for why our QB draftees never got playing time until Peterson finally committed to Croyle, I’d posit that it’s not because the coaching staff refused to play them because they hate young QBs (Schottenheimer, in fact, has developed three very good young QBs…Bernie Kosar, Drew Brees, and Philip Rivers), it’s because the coaching staff recognized that those players simply weren’t talented enough to develop into good players and going with the veteran QB was the smarter option for the team.

I think the blame (forgive me Mr. Hunt, RIP) goes up a little higher than Carl.

I’d agree with that and think it’s a fair critique. Lamar Hunt was a decent man and a visionary who did a lot of good things for the NFL and I think he was more financially supportive of the team than many owners are, but as an owner I think he was a bit negligent in who he let run his team. He had Jack Steadman around for years despite the fact that the man was clearly incompetent and he kept Carl Peterson around for much longer than he should have considering that Peterson’s last playoff win was over a decade before Hunt died. I think Hunt was very loyal to the people who worked for him, which is admirable in some ways, but not so desirable when that loyalty lets one ignore whether the employees any good at their jobs. Personally, I think Peterson probably should have been removed as GM either after the 1997 season with Marty or after 1998 when the team was becoming disenchanted with Gunther as head coach (they should have brought in a new GM to find Gunther’s replacement). The hiring of Dick Vermeil was not a bad move (because he was a very good head coach, if a poor evaluator of draft talent) but allowing Peterson to handle that hiring committed the franchise to Peterson for at least Vermeil’s tenure. I think Hunt should have recognized by that point that Peterson was basically treading water and lacked the ability to get the Chiefs over the hump as a GM.