Once Gardner Minshew departed in free agency, the Chiefs found themselves in need of a brand new backup quarterback. They filled that emptiness with last week’s trade for Justin Fields.
The previous Bear, Steeler and Jet will spend the offseason handling first-team reps while Patrick Mahomes continues his rehab process. Depending on how long that takes, Fields could find himself atop the depth chart early within the 2026 campaign. Which will have also been true of one other quarterback Kansas City showed interest in.
SportsBoom’s Jason La Canfora reports the Chiefs “considered” Anthony Richardson when weighing their QB options. The three-year Colts passer was granted permission to hunt a trade earlier this offseason, something which got here as no surprise. La Canfora’s latest piece echoes earlier ones indicating a limited market exists for Richardson, whose NFL profession has definitely not gone in line with plan to this point.
The Packers have been mentioned as a possible landing spot previously, and a GM voiced an expectation (via La Canfora) Green Bay will likely be the team that brings in Richardson. The Packers had success with their Malik Willis buy-low transaction, sending the Titans only a seventh-round pick for a player who just landed $45MM guaranteed at signing (from the Dolphins). While the Packers will likely be out there for one more Jordan Love backup, some across the league pointed to the Jaguars as a possible Richardson destination.
Although the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade (Dolphins to Jets) showed teams will be open to trading starters inside their divisions, it is sort of rare for such moves to happen. The Joe Flacco (2025), Donovan McNabb (2010), Drew Bledsoe (2002) swaps — which involved supplanted starters or, within the Eagles’ case, soon-to-be replaced starters — show in-division QB deals can occur. But they’re extraordinarily unusual.
The Jaguars have Nick Mullens stationed as Trevor Lawrence‘s backup presently; the Liam Coen-James Gladstone regime brought within the journeyman reserve in March 2025. Richardson, 24 in May, would obviously bring a talent upgrade — albeit one which has struggled for many of his pro profession. The Colts look to be through with the previous No. 4 overall pick. They separated from the exec who initially championed Richardson — Morocco Brown — last 12 months and have since transition-tagged and prolonged Daniel Jones. Riley Leonard is in place as Jones’ backup.
Richardson, who starred in Gainesville in 2022, is due a $5.39MM guarantee for 2026. The Jaguars have experience with any such trade, having sent the Patriots a sixth-rounder for Mac Jones in 2024. Jones played out his rookie deal before signing with the 49ers (two years, $7MM) in 2025, becoming a high-end trade chip after a bounce-back season in San Francisco.
Becoming only the eighth quarterback to finish fewer than 50% of his passes on 200-plus attempts in a season, Richardson has been each erratic and unreliable as a professional. The one-year Florida starter missed missed 13 games with a shoulder injury in 2023 and handled multiple issues in 2024. Oblique trouble knocked Richardson out early within the ’24 season, and after a performance-based benching brought a temporary midseason Flacco cameo, the aging QB was back on the controls to shut the season as a consequence of Richardson experiencing foot and back trouble. The 2025 offseason then brought one other shoulder issue for Richardson, who then suffered an orbital fracture within the Colts’ locker room.
The latter issue prompted the Colts to bring Philip Rivers out of retirement when Jones suffered an Achilles tear in December. Richardson returned to practice but was not activated from IR. Some teams are concerned concerning the quarterback’s vision within the wake of the attention injury, in line with La Canfora.
Last 12 months, execs pegged the fourth-rounder Lance drew from the Cowboys as realistic for Richardson. But when vision concerns are shared by quite a lot of teams — for a player who has fallen out of favor in Indianapolis — it may be difficult for the Colts to fetch that price. For now, Richardson’s camp can keep shopping. A report of mutual interest between the QB and the Vikings is not going to produce a move, as Minnesota has since signed Kyler Murray and brought back Carson Wentz.
As for the Chiefs, they’ve seen Mahomes prove a fast healer previously. ACL and LCL tears obviously represent the megastar’s most important hurdle so far, and Fields represents low-cost insurance. The Chiefs are on the hook for just $3MM of Fields’ 2026 compensation. Mahomes doesn’t have a transparent timetable yet, but Week 1 is believed to be in play. Fields will follow the likes of Wentz, Chad Henne, Blaine Gabbert and Gardner Minshew as a veteran backup. Late-season starter Chris Oladokun stays on Kansas City’s roster as well.
Adam La Rose contributed to this post.