Arrowhead Pride
Kansas City’s new veteran backup quarterback has a good understanding of how to support the face of the league.
The Kansas City Chiefs will have a new veteran backup quarterback for superstar Patrick Mahomes this season, after agreeing to terms with well-traveled veteran Gardner Minshew, who spent last season with the Las Vegas Raiders.
When Minshew met with local reporters on Thursday, he revealed that his pairing with the Chiefs has been a long time in the making. It goes back to a visit to Kansas City before the 2019 NFL Draft — when he first met head coach Andy Reid.
“From the end of our season — when I it seemed like I was going to get cut,” Minshew explained, “I knew in my head that this is where I wanted to be. I took a pre-draft visit with the Chiefs back in the day [before] coming into the league. I feel like everything went really well — just talking to Coach Reid and understanding what they’re all about. I always knew that [Kansas City would] be a really good fit.”
Minshew confirmed that this time around, Reid played a major role in recruiting him.
“To get on the phone with Coach Reid,” he remarked, “and get to hear what they’re talking about — and also to hear how he sees me fitting and how he values my personality and what I bring to the table? That just fires me up so much! To be somewhere that you feel appreciated and valued — obviously by somebody you respect so much and has had so much success doing it.”
In Minshew’s first career game in 2019 with the Jacksonville Jaguars (against the Chiefs, in fact), he entered the game as an injury replacement. Since collecting 275 passing yards and two touchdowns in his debut, he has started 46 games for four different organizations. While he understands his role in Kansas City will undoubtedly be a support role for superstar Patrick Mahomes, Minshew believes he can learn from both the head coach and the starting quarterback.
“I’m super fired up to be part of just a winning organization [and] winning culture,” he declared. “I feel like I have so much to learn from how Coach Reid and everybody operates — [and] how Pat operates — and I’m just looking forward to helping in any way I can. If there’s any way I can help this team — whether it’s on the scout team, whether it’s helping Pat in meetings, whether it’s just bringing good energy to practice — I look forward to just doing whatever I can to contribute and help this team win.”
Backup quarterback can mean different things to different teams with different situations surrounding their passer. Minshew is ready for all of it.
“I’ll tell you,” he noted, “being a starting quarterback in the NFL is a hard deal — especially with all the expectations [about] everything that gets put on a guy like that. [So] sometimes, it’s...
