Kansas City Chiefs sign Buffalo Bills quarterback after Patrick Mahomes and Gardner Minshew injuries

Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs have signed quarterback Shane Buechele to ease their injury crisis as they splutter towards the end of the season.

After Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL in last Sunday's loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, his backup Gardner Minshew also sustained a bad knee injury this weekend the against Tennessee Titans.

While reports on Monday afternoon cooled fears that Minshew had also torn his ACL, he was placed on injured reserve, prompting the Chiefs to move for Buechele and take him from the Buffalo Bills practice squad.

Buechele first joined Kansas City back in 2021 after going undrafted out of Southern Methodist University.

He was on the Chiefs roster when they beat the Philadelphia Eagles at Super Bowl LVII. But the 27-year-old has still yet to play his first game in the NFL.

The quarterback left Kansas City to join the Bills practice squad in 2023, only for a neck injury to forced him out of the entire 2024-25 season.

He missed out on the Bills active roster before the start of this season but rejoined the Buffalo practice squad the following day.

Third-string Chris Oladokun is currently the only healthy quarterback on the Chiefs roster, with both Mahomes and Minshew on injured reserve.

ESPN reported on Monday that Minshew did not tear his ACL - as initially feared - but the 29-year-old will still sit out the rest of the season with a badly bruised knee.

Minshew stepped up as Mahomes' replacement for the Week 16 matchup against the Titans but was forced out during the second quarter.

The quarterback was ruled out for the remainder of the game - his first start this season - forcing the Chiefs to turn to Oladokun.

The 28-year-old failed to prevent Kansas City from falling to a ninth loss of the season as they were beaten 28-6 by the Titans.

Buechele's last name might sound familiar to baseball fans. His father is former Rangers and Cubs third baseman, Steve Buechel, and he has a brother, Garrett, who played baseball at Oklahoma.

Interestingly, Steve attended college at Stanford, where he roomed with future Pro Football Hall of Famer and one-time New York Yankees prospect, John Elway.