Commanders either wanted Patrick Mahomes or Shane Buechele trade from KC Chiefs

By now, everyone knows about the massive survey operation undertaken by the Washington Commanders this offseason in their search to find a franchise quarterback. On Wednesday, general manager Martin Mayhew spoke to reporters from the 2022 NFL Combine detailing the search by saying they’d called teams around the NFL looking at approximately 40 potential candidates.

That’s when the jokes started flying.

It makes sense for a team to inquire about candidates who are clearly on the trade block—or could be—and they’d be irresponsible if they’d not called Seattle about Russell Wilson, for example. It also makes sense for Washington, or any team without an elite QB, to turn over every rock they can in their search to find a solution.

It was just also very funny picturing another NFL general manager calling Brett Veach of the Kansas City Chiefs to ask about the asking price for Patrick Mahomes.

The Washington Commanders called the Kansas City Chiefs (and numerous other teams) about trading for their quarterback.

It didn’t take long for quick takes poking fun of any Mahomes trade inquiry to pop up—but what if it wasn’t Mahomes?

On the one hand, Mayhew should have asked about trading for Mahomes. As my mother said, ‘The answer is always no until you ask.” So it can’t hurt, right? We’re just not sure that we’d admit as much publicly about the lengths of our quarterback search.

That said, what if Mayhew had further interest at the position for the Chiefs. Would someone want to trade for Shane Buechele?

it’s clear that Chad Henne would not be the target of any trade talks here, because he’s going to be free to sign with any team in just two weeks. if there’s going to be a bidding war for Henne, we’re pretty sure the Chiefs would concede that battle not long after it began—no slight to Henne but it just doesn’t make sense for K.C. So what if it wasn’t just Mahomes? What if Buechele was a young quarterback target?

Beuchele is the Chiefs’ current developmental arm and there have been several floating around Arrowhead for the last few years—from Chase Litton to Jordan Ta’amu and Anthony Gordon to Shea Patterson and Kyle Shurmur to Joel Stave. You get the point. Most last as long as a stick of gum holds flavor.

To his credit, however, Buechele has not only stuck around on the roster but the Chiefs were protecting him on the active roster late in the season at the point that other teams wanted to grab him away from Kansas City. Buechele knows he has no path to starting in the NFL with the Chiefs, but maybe there have been overtures made about being in a very real competition for Henne’s role in 2022. But none of this makes sense for the Commanders either.

Mahomes was never going to be available. Buechele, however, also seems to be an odd target. I mean, if you’re fishing for the likes of Russell Wilson or even Jimmy Garappolo then what does Buechele get you? The Commanders already have Taylor Heinicke so at least there’s some youth with starting experience. No team is so desperate in the NFL that they need another team’s untested QB3 to compete for starting reps.

In the end, nothing makes too much sense here, except for Mayhew to be able to look at his bosses and say, “I literally called every team to see who was available—including checking in on Patrick Mahomes.”