Once Gardner Minshew departed in free agency, the Chiefs found themselves in need of a new backup quarterback. They filled that vacancy with last week’s trade for Justin Fields.
The former 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 in the 2026 campaign. That may have also been true of another 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 seek a trade earlier this offseason, something which came as no surprise. La Canfora’s latest piece echoes earlier ones indicating a limited market exists for Richardson, whose NFL career has certainly not gone according to plan so far.
The Packers have been mentioned as a potential landing spot previously, and a GM voiced an expectation (via La Canfora) Green Bay will 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 be in the market for another Jordan Love backup, some around the league pointed to the Jaguars as a potential Richardson destination.
Although the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade (Dolphins to Jets) showed teams can be open to trading starters within their divisions, it is quite rare for such moves to take place. The Joe Flacco (2025), Donovan McNabb (2010), Drew Bledsoe (2002) swaps — which involved supplanted starters or, in the Eagles’ case, soon-to-be replaced starters — show in-division QB deals can happen. But they are extraordinarily uncommon.
The Jaguars have Nick Mullens stationed as Trevor Lawrence‘s backup presently; the Liam Coen-James Gladstone regime brought in the journeyman reserve in March 2025. Richardson, 24 in May, would obviously bring a talent upgrade — albeit one that has struggled for most of his pro career. The Colts look to be through with the former No. 4 overall pick. They separated from the exec who initially championed Richardson — Morocco Brown — last year and have since transition-tagged and extended 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 this type of 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 complete fewer than 50% of his passes on 200-plus attempts in a season, Richardson has been both erratic and unreliable as a pro. The one-year Florida starter missed missed 13 games with a shoulder injury in 2023 and dealt with multiple issues in 2024. Oblique trouble knocked Richardson out early in the ’24 season, and after a performance-based benching brought a brief midseason Flacco cameo, the aging QB was back at the controls to close the season due to Richardson experiencing foot and back trouble. The 2025 offseason then brought another shoulder issue for Richardson, who then suffered an orbital fracture in 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 about the quarterback’s vision in the wake of the eye injury, according to La Canfora.
Last year, execs pegged the fourth-rounder Lance drew from the Cowboys as realistic for Richardson. But if vision concerns are shared by a number of teams — for a player who has fallen out of favor in Indianapolis — it might 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 will not produce a move, as Minnesota has since signed Kyler Murray and brought back Carson Wentz.
As for the Chiefs, they have seen Mahomes prove a quick healer in the past. ACL and LCL tears obviously represent the megastar’s most significant hurdle to date, and Fields represents low-cost insurance. The Chiefs are on the hook for just $3MM of Fields’ 2026 compensation. Mahomes does not have a clear 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 remains on Kansas City’s roster as well.
Adam La Rose contributed to this post.
The Chiefs considering Richardson:
Executive At Meeting: We need a new backup QB.
Anonymous Coach: How about Anthony Richardson?
(The entire room cracks up laughing)
Exec: No, c’mon, let’s get serious…
Or Andy Reid went to the GM and said guys I’m getting bored these days. I need a challenge a project something to really push me and make me focus and hone in after last years debacle.
GM said Fields or Richardson?
Reid looked at the GM. You serious?
GM nodded
Reid give me Justin he’s cheaper to acquire
He was talking about a new fast food restaurant…
Bills
If Mike McCarthy wants to go out a hero in Pittsburgh, he’d salvage Richardson and his legacy. There’s enough talent there to make it worth a shot.
What legacy is there to salvage? McCarthy is a Super Bowl winning coach with a .608 winning percentage. Despite how much hate he gets, he’s one of the more successful head coaches in NFL history. Not much need to take a risk on a Richardson project, unless he feels like a challenge is worth the time. Hard to see that in his first year of building a regime, and I have a feeling that Pittsburgh might take a QB this year if one is there. Still, if Khan decides to do the deal, I suppose McCarthy will have his work cut out for him.
If McCarthy wants to be a hero he’d pick up one of the worst QBs ever and everything will magically work out? Ok
C’mon Cleveland, you know you want to…
Lol no, no we don’t… we have the original project QB in Watson … let someone else feel our pain
Richardson will be a bad signing and an even worse trade for whoever takes him.
Richardson would have been a good choice to backup Murray in Minnesota.
He would have been good to back up Favre in Green Bay… only because Favre went a little over 11 seasons without missing a game…
You know you’re cooked when a team goes yea let’s take the worst starting qb in the league last year and go with him over even taking a chance on this guy.
lol chiefs with fields. Lmao.
Richardson needs to go to Canada where he might get a chance….no NFL team needs a injury prone project QB here…..
I kinda thought KC would pursue Richardson too, if for no other reason than the connection between the Chiefs front office and Ballard. I wouldn’t write off the Fields move too early though. It’s not like Fields has been surrounded by a lot of offensive masterminds in his career so far. Fields compares close to Falcons era Vick as a passer, a one read passer with so so accuracy who would prefer to just run it. He’s never gonna be a field general, pocket guy but Reid could certainly help him move from a 50% passer to a low 60s passer. Balance his game a little bit.
Pitt or Arizona bound perhaps. Maybe SF if they trade Mac Jones. Would take a lot of work.
If the Jets are still all-in on tanking for another season, why not offer Indy a 7th rounder to have a younger QB backup the 35yo Geno?? If Geno misses a few games, Richardson is sure to enhance their ’27 draft ranking.