Reports: Blaine Gabbert joins Chiefs on one-year deal

The Kansas City Chiefs have a new backup quarterback.

12-year veteran Blaine Gabbert has signed with Kansas City, as first reported by “The Pat McAfee Show” and quickly confirmed by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Herbie Teope of The Kansas City Star added that it’s a one-year deal.

Gabbert, 33, first entered the league out of the University of Missouri over a decade ago as the No. 10 overall pick made by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2011 NFL Draft. A native of Ballwin, Missouri, Gabbert played high school football at Parkway West.

The 6-foot-5, 236-pound quarterback has appeared in 67 games (48 starts), completing 864 of 1,533 passes (56.4%) for more than 9,000 passing yards, 51 touchdowns and 47 interceptions. Over his long career, Gabbert has spent time with the Jaguars (2011-13), San Francisco 49ers (2014-16), Arizona Cardinals (2017), Tennessee Titans (2018) and, most recently, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2019-22). Yes, this means Gabbert does have a Super Bowl LV ring.

Before the 2022 season, head coach Andy Reid had changed his long tendency of keeping three quarterbacks at the 53-man roster deadline, holding only two in 2018, 2020 and 2021. But he went back to three quarterbacks at last year’s deadline, keeping starter Patrick Mahomes, veteran backup Chad Henne and 25-year-old Shane Buechele. Henne, of course, is now retired.

At the time of this writing, my early prediction is that Reid opts to retain three quarterbacks again, with the backup job up for grabs between Gabbert and Buechele.