Kansas City Chiefs Backup QB Job Still Up For Grabs

The Kansas City Chiefs started off their OTAs last week with Brady Quinn running behind Matt Cassel as the No. 2 quarterback, which left Ricky Stanzi as the No. 3. Fast forward a week and Quinn and Stanzi's roles are reversed with Stanzi running with the twos on Tuesday, throwing "several nice passes", according to the KC Star.

"Brady and I have switched on and off," Stanzi said in comments distributed by the Chiefs. "I've run w/ the twos before and then with the threes. It's just a lot of switching."

What he's saying is that we don't know the depth chart yet. We can guess, yes. But we can't say without a doubt that the quarterback depth chart will shake out one way or the other. Quinn or Stanzi as the No. 2, it's a toss-up right now.

This is a situation where preseason is going to tell us a lot more considering Stanzi is, for the most part, an unknown. Even Quinn has just 11 career starts. So it's not like these guys are highly experienced backups who have been in the league for a decade.

In fact, Stanzi is still learning Brian Daboll's system. He's also on career offensive coordinator No. 2, which is three OC changes behind Matt Cassel.

"It has its differences but at the same time, it's a system," Stanzi said of Daboll's new offensive system. "With all the terminology, you can put it into things you've done before and there are similar routes and similar pass protections. For the most part, it's learning all of that new terminology and then going out there and putting it on the field."

For the Chiefs, the best case scenario would be Stanzi developing at a faster rate than Quinn. When Stanzi was drafted the Chiefs had to wonder if he would one day develop into a starter. The first year has given us few clues that he will but there still has to be some hope that Stanzi can be more than a developmental quarterback.