The Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback situation went from bad to worse on Sunday, Dec. 21, when Gardner Minshew went down with a left knee injury just three plays into a 26–9 loss to the Tennessee Titans. Patrick Mahomes is already out after tearing major ligaments in the same knee a week earlier. The Chiefs were suddenly staring at the possibility of losing two quarterbacks in back-to-back games.

Minshew’s injury looked ominous right away. On a scramble early in the first quarter, he fell awkwardly on what appeared to be a noncontact play. He later immediately reached for his knee and limped off. He attempted to keep going, but Kansas City’s offense visibly stalled as he struggled to set his feet. He finished 3 of 8 for 15 yards before the team turned to third-stringer Chris Oladokun.

Initial concern was a torn ACL, but Monday brought a more straightforward and slightly less catastrophic answer: Minshew avoided an ACL tear. Instead, sources said imaging revealed a non-displaced tibial plateau fracture, which will still end his season. This led the Chiefs to place him on the injured reserve and sign Shane Buechele for depth.

Oladokun stabilized the offense enough to produce all nine of Kansas City’s points. He threw for 111 yards while he also absorbed four sacks. He’s now expected to start the final two games, beginning with a quick turnaround to host Denver on Thursday night.

Gardner Minshew is heading to Kansas City, agreeing to a one-year deal with the Chiefs.

Minshew will be the new backup to Patrick Mahomes, replacing Carson Wentz, who is currently a free agent.

The Las Vegas Raiders parted ways with Minshew on Wednesday, just one year into his two-year, $25 million deal.

Minshew outperformed Aidan O’Connell in training camp to win the Raiders’ starting quarterback job last year. However, he struggled, throwing for 2,013 yards, nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions over 10 games – nine as the starter – before a broken collarbone sidelined him for the season. The Raiders finished 2-7 in his starts.

In his six-year career, Minshew has thrown 68 touchdowns and 34 interceptions in 59 games, including 46 starts, with the Las Vegas Raiders, Indianapolis Colts, Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars, who drafted him in the sixth round of the 2019 draft.

Minshew’s most productive season came in 2023 with the Colts, when he threw for a career-high 3,305 yards over 17 games, including 13 starts, leading Indianapolis to a 7-6 record in those starts.

The Las Vegas Raiders have been not-so-secretly plying free agency and the Draft for a 2025 starting quarterback following a dismal season from their carousel of backup quarterbacks. On Thursday, this finally materialized, as the team traded for Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith in what many have deemed a steal.

Unsurprisingly, this move reportedly involves releasing Gardner Minshew, whom Las Vegas signed to a two-year, $25 million contract in 2024. Minshew, 28, began the season in the starting role but struggled. He threw nine touchdowns and ten interceptions in the ten games he led the Raiders’ offense before suffering a broken collarbone in Week 12. The team went 2-8 with him at the helm.

Las Vegas doesn’t gain a ton of cap space by cutting Minshew—only around $3 million while maintaining over $10 million in dead cap—but it does cast off what has become increasingly clear is a liability. Even if the organization was confident there was an upward trajectory, Minshew’s three benchings in his first nine games established a low, low floor.

Prior to acquiring Smith, the Raiders made a run at Matthew Stafford, who elected to restructure his contract with the Los Angeles Rams instead. The organization reportedly prefers veteran quarterbacks, so the Smith deal makes sense.

Smith, 34, has one year at $31 million left on his contract, which saw him make the Pro Bowl twice in six years in Seattle. He’ll now reunite with head coach Pete Carroll, who coached the Seahawks in all but one of those six seasons.

On a lackluster 2024 Seahawks offense, Smith broke team records in passing yards and completion rate, posting 4,320 yards with 21 touchdowns for a completion percentage of 70.4%. He also lobbed 15 interceptions – good for third most in the NFL. Overall, though, Smith is a steady starting quarterback in a league where that’s an increasingly valuable commodity, which is why the return of a single third-round draft pick is controversial (read: a steal for the Raiders).

The acquisition of a veteran quarterback reads as consistent for a Raiders squad that just signed Maxx Crosby for a record $106 million. For a team that finished with a 4-13 record, Las Vegas is all in on “winning now.”

“We are trying to take it as far as we can as soon as we possibly can,” said Carroll at the NFL Combine. “I’m not looking for a grace period…. I don’t think that way at all.”

With the combination of Smith and Carroll, as well as Crosby and star tight end Brock Bowers entering his sophomore season, the Raiders should look better than they did last year. How much better, though, time will tell.

The Las Vegas Raiders moved to 3-12 on the season Sunday, carving out a five-point win over the struggling Jacksonville Jaguars. Their fans? Unhappy, to say the least.

The Raiders have used three quarterbacks this year – Gardner Minshew, former backup for the Eagles, Aidan O’Connell, who backed up Derek Carr for the Raiders, and Desmond Ridder, who was unceremoniously relieved of his starting duties in Atlanta.

While Minshew seems the most successful of the bunch, with the highest completion percentage and nine touchdowns, his stats belie ten interceptions and 29 sacks – disproportionate even compared to his counterparts. The other quarterbacks haven’t been much more successful, and the Raiders’ biggest rusher, Alexander Mattison, has just 30.7 yards per game.

For the most part, the only bright spot for the team has been Offensive Rookie Of The Year contender Brock Bowers, the first-round tight end who has over 1,000 receiving yards through 15 games.

Besides the season ending, Raiders fans have looked with anticipation to the 2025 NFL Draft, hoping to acquire another rookie sensation (preferably a quarterback). Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward, as the two top quarterback prospects in the nation, are obvious targets for the Raiders if they secure an early spot in the draft – which they seemed primed to do, coming into Sunday.

The Raiders had lost ten straight and sat in slot number two, at which point they would be able to snag one of the top two quarterbacks. Instead, they won – and dropped to pick no. 6.

“We don’t do this to lose,” said head coach Antonio Pierce following the game. “We don’t do this for anybody’s fantasy football team. We don’t do this for anybody’s draft projections. None of that s— matters to us. The only thing that matters is winning, and that’s all we want to do.”

Whether a late-season win will help the Raiders in the long term is doubtful. At present, the Giants, Patriots, Jaguars, Browns and Titans are all slated to pick before them. The Giants, who have the presumptive no. 1 pick, will almost definitely pick a quarterback. Even if Las Vegas loses out in the last two weeks, they’ll need help from other teams to move closer to pick no. 1.

The Raiders play the New Orleans Saints (5-9) this Sunday, who have endured recent struggles of their own, before closing out the regular season against the Los Angeles Chargers (9-6).

The 2025 NFL Draft is scheduled for April 24-26, 2025.

The Las Vegas Raiders have a number of issues to address throughout their depth chart, starting with quarterback. One issue the team doesn’t have, however, is a lack of defensive leadership. Maxx Crosby has that covered.

Speaking with ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez earlier this week, Crosby spoke about his 2023 season, during which he was brilliant but also limited by knee ailments. Despite earning 14.5 sacks, a career-high, and making his third straight Pro Bowl, Crosby believes he still has room to improve and has taken this off-season to make the necessary changes.

“It made me take a step back so I could take three steps forward, and I feel like that’s what this offseason was all about — my one goal is to be the best in the world, pound for pound, and I talk about it, I’m about it, I live it every single day and whatever street I’ve got to travel to get to where I want to go, I’m going to do that,” Crosby said. “So I’m exhausting every single resource I possibly have to have the best season of my career.”

Over the past five seasons, Crosby has blossomed into a monstrous defender, keeping the Raiders in contention at times when they had no right to do so. Fighting his way through multiple surgeries and several years of anemic Raiders offenses, Crosby has led the defense to strong seasons under adverse conditions.

“I had to get two major surgeries, and it’s been different, but at the end of the day, there’s not one street to get to where you want to go, there’s multiple,” Crosby said. “And for me, I trust the people around me, trust my team, everyone involved, to get me back to 100 percent. And then also taking that next step.”

This season, expectations will be low from the jump for the Raiders, as quarterbacks Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew settle an underwhelming depth chart battle for the starting position. Coming off his best season, however, expectations for Crosby will be extremely high, regardless of the team’s performance elsewhere.

Many fans were anticipating the start of the Jacksonville Jaguars preseason game on Saturday. Perhaps it was for the number one pick Trevor Lawrence making his debut. Actually, it was for Tim Tebow.

The former quarterback turned baseball player has now turned into a tight end. Tebow signed a one-year, non-guaranteed contract to play for the Jaguars as a tight end. So many fans were anticipating seeing how Tebow would do as a tight end.

However, Tebow was not on the highlights for his skill at the position. Tebow played 16 snaps in the 23-13 loss to the Cleveland Browns. The newly turned tight end ended up on the highlights for when he was targeted for a pass from quarterback Gardner Minshew at the very end of the second quarter, but wide receiver Tavon Austin appeared to steal his catch.

In another viral highlight that fans made fun of was when Tebow made a poor blocking attempt. After the poor attempt, he got up and then appeared to spear a teammate with his helmet by accident.

Tebow is currently in a heated position battle for the tight end spots on the roster. The former Heisman Trophy winner was listed as the No. 4 tight end on the Jaguars unofficial depth chart. He was listed alongside two other players who are battling for the fourth spot. Chris Manhertz and James O’Shaughnessy are slated to be the starters, and fifth-round pick Luke Farrell may be the third-string tight end.

The Jacksonville Jaguars plan to bounce back from a disappointing 2019 campaign where they finished last in the AFC South with a 6-10 record. On Tuesday, the organization hired Jay Gruden, hoping the former Redskins’ head coach can improve a team that finished 20th in total offense, according to NFL Team Stats.

“We were trying to find someone who’s best for this staff, who’s best for what you want to run, then you’re looking for what person’s best for your players – who’s going to relate to the players, who’s going to be able to communicate with them,” Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said. “At the end of the day, we just felt that Jay was the best fit for us.”

The Redskins fired Gruden after an 0-5 start in his sixth season as head coach. He leaves Washington with a 35-49-1 record including an NFC East title and playoff appearance in 2015.

Before his first head coaching gig Gruden spent three years as the offensive coordinator in Cincinnati. In his three seasons the team finished with a winning record each year and in 2013, his offensive schemes helped the Bengals rank in the top ten in total yards per game, according to ESPN.

One of the toughest decisions Gruden will face is what quarterback will be starting Week 1 next season. Jacksonville had previously signed Nick Foles to a four-year, $88 million contract last March with a franchise record $50.125 guaranteed, but he sustained a broken collar bone in the first game of the 2019 season. He was replaced by rookie sixth round pick Gardner Minshew who went 4-5 before Foles returned. Much to the Jaguars’ chagrin, Foles struggled and was replaced by Minshew after just two and a half games. Marrone and general manager Dave Caldwell have not announced which quarterback will start in 2020.

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Since Doug Marrone was named head coach in 2017, he has hired three offensive coordinators including Gruden.

Jacksonville hasn’t had much to celebrate about the past few years. But this year brought about the addition of Superbowl MVP Nick Foles, only to see him go down with injury in his first game. Enter sixth round pick Gardner Minshew.

Usually that is not the greatest news you want to hear: Rookie. Sixth round. Second string. Replacement. But Minshew held his own against a decent-playing Titans team on Thursday night. The Jaguars won 20-7.

Although Minshew made some mishaps, it was more apparent that he and the offense have yet to completely click. He has had one week taking practice snaps as the starter. In the past, his accuracy has been question, but on Thursday there were some amazing threads thrown in tight coverage. The Titans’ corners and safeties did not look bad. It was all Minshew.

Minshew found Clark on the opposite side of defenders and dropped it like a gift from above on many occasions. It was much needed as star running back Leonard Fournette was held to negative points in the first half. He would go on to finish with 66 yards after a long break away that led to the tenth yard line, and a few successful carries.

Minshew went 20 for 30 with 205 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Although far from a finished product, the Jaguars looked good on both ends. They sacked Marcus Marriotta a total of nine times. The was no breathing room for the Titans, who managed to score in the second half. Marriotta was rushed and was help with no target all day. He had a few bright spots, throwing for distance when he could get the ball out in time, and ended with 304 yards. He had no touchdowns and no interceptions.

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After three games, Marriotta is third in the league with 706 passing yards. Minshew is fourth with 692.

The Jaguars and Minshew don’t play again until next week Sunday, September 29 against the Denver Broncos.