Both the Chiefs’ starting and backup quarterbacks are locked in, but the defending Super Bowl champions are adding a third option to work behind Patrick Mahomes and Carson Wentz.
Andy Reid will see what he can coax from Bailey Zappe, with NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reporting the former Patriots backup/spot starter is joining the Chiefs on a practice squad deal. Zappe has once again cleared waivers, but this time he will leave New England.
Mahomes has not missed a game due to injury since the 2019 season, though he did miss time during the 2020 and ’22 divisional-round games. Wentz signed this year, after the Chiefs pursued him in 2023; those two are the only active-roster Chiefs arms. Zappe will attempt to reset in Missouri and learn from one of the best coaches in NFL history.
Generating fanfare after winning two games as a rookie, Zappe started eight games in two seasons. He is a 63.2% passer who holds an 11-to-12 TD-to-INT ratio. Zappe, who threw a Division I-FBS-record 62 touchdown passes during his lone season with Western Kentucky, has averaged 6.8 yards per attempt as a pro. He played in three Pats offenses in three years, so learning a new scheme will be rather familiar territory for the former fourth-round pick.
The Pats had waived Zappe in 2023, completing an unusual plan that had Mac Jones as the only QB on the roster for a bit. Zappe did return and eventually replaced a struggling Jones late last season. Zappe closed the 2023 slate as New England’s starter, but the team — now under Eliot Wolf‘s guidance — overhauled its QB room by signing Jacoby Brissett and drafting Drake Maye and Joe Milton. The sixth-round Tennessee prospect beat out Zappe for the Patriots’ QB3 gig.