Chiefs news: Shane Buechele tendered offer for 2023 season
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs are bringing back Shane Buechele for 2023 as expected after tendering him an offer on Wednesday.
In an announcement that surprises no one paying attention, the Kansas City Chiefs have officially decided to bring back quarterback Shane Buechele for another year. The team tendered him an offer as an exclusive rights free agent on Wednesday afternoon, according to Matt Derrick of Chiefs Digest.
Buechele has yet to throw an official pass in the NFL and came to the team as a rookie free agent. That said, he’s an interesting plot line for the Chiefs given how clearly they like his upside.
The Chiefs first landed Buechele as an undrafted player out of SMU in 2021 and he ended up making the practice squad. In doing so, he fended off competition for the developmental quarterback spot behind Patrick Mahomes and Chad Henne and showed that the coaching staff at least saw something in him. Midway through the year, the Arizona Cardinals came calling with a chance an active roster but the Chiefs jumped into action.
From that moment in November, 2021, the Chiefs have kept Buechele on their active roster until the present day. That made. him a healthy scratch last year for all 17 regular season games and three more postseason games, regardless of injury issues at other positions. That means the Chiefs liked him enough to use a roster spot on him knowing he would never play—all in order to keep another team from poaching him.
For Buechele it was a clear sign that the Chiefs potentially viewed him as QB2 going forward once there was a decision to make once again about Chad Henne. Early this offseason, however, Henne made his own call and decided to retire from the game. That left open the backup spot behind Mahomes for Buechele to claim.
The Chiefs would be silly to hand Buechele the role without any competition, but it should be his to lose. Chris Oladakun is there as another interesting QB talent and a further prospect might be found in the draft. But given the Chiefs allegiance to Buechele for the last season-and-a-half, it makes more sense to believe he will be QB2 in ’23.