The Kansas City Chiefs have been dealing with a massive quarterback crisis with injuries to QB1 Patrick Mahomes and his backup, Gardner Minshew. The Super Bowl runners-up lost Showtime after his ACL injury against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 15. Subsequently, in the next game, Minshew went down with a knee injury of his own against the Tennessee Titans. Now, with the Denver Broncos next on the schedule, a former Kansas City QB shared a message about his failed attempt to return to the league.

It was former Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel, who publicly left the door open for a return as Kansas City navigated its quarterback crisis. However, despite the interest and speculation, the one-time Pro Bowler’s push ultimately went unanswered.

“Bad news: still no calls. Good news: HOF eligibility clock didn’t reset,” Cassel wrote as a reply to a previous tweet where he made his case for an NFL return, which said, “Seeing a lot people mentioning me going to the Chiefs. Arm’s loose. Phone line’s open.”

Any other time in the NFL, this may seem like an unreasonable request. But in a season where the Indianapolis Colts enlisted the services of a retired 44-year-old Philip Rivers, anything is possible. Similar to the 17-year veteran who returned after a four-year retirement break, Matt Cassel had his last NFL game in 2018, where he played for the Detroit Lions.

The former Chiefs quarterback spent four seasons in Kansas City, going 10-5 as a starter in 2010, making the Pro Bowl. During this season, Cassel recorded an impressive 3,116 yards, 27 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. However, since his last game in the league, the 43-year-old has been a football analyst for NBC Sports while also running a popular podcast called “Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Cassel.”

Hence, looking at Cassel’s recent endeavors, the Kansas City Chiefs may have decided to go in a different direction as they have already found another quarterback to replace Gardner Minshew and even start in the last two games of the season.

Chiefs rope in ex-Bills quarterback as Minshew replacement

As a solution for their depleted quarterback room, the Kansas City Chiefs brought back Shane Buechele from the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad. Buechele was the third-string quarterback in Buffalo behind Josh Allen and Mitchell Trubisky and didn’t feature in a single game this season.

Looking back at Buechele’s NFL career, the 27-year-old had a notable college career at SMU, where he recorded 7024 yards with 57 touchdowns in two years after transferring from the Texas Longhorns. Then, after going undrafted in the 2021 NFL draft, Shane Buechele was picked up by the Chiefs for their practice squad.

After being on the inactive list for the 2021 season, Buechele was the backup for Patrick Mahomes for the 2022 season and won the Super Bowl. Then, in 2023, after being waived by Kansas, Shane Buechele joined the Buffalo Bills, where he spent the next two years before returning to Kansas.

However, despite his familiarity with Andy Reid’s coaching system, Shane Buechele may not get the starting nod as he practiced as the backup shot-caller behind Chris Oladokun, as reported by Chiefs reporter Zak Gilbert.

“Shane Buechele (17) returns to practice field for Chiefs, this time as QB2 behind Chris Oladokun,” Gilbert wrote on X. “No Rashee Rice, Tyquan Thornton, Trent McDuffie or Jaylen Watson on Tuesday.”

Now with the Broncos next up, head coach Andy Reid will lean on his new quarterback rotation to help the Chiefs finish their disappointing season on a positive note.