Buffalo Bills player poached from practice squad by Kansas City Chiefs, per report

The Bills' QB had been in Buffalo since the 2023 season.

Bills quarterbacks Josh Allen, Mitchell Trubisky and Shane Buechele have a group celebration after Buechele went three-for-three on his target passes during individual drills during the final Buffalo Bills training camp session. | Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK

A Buffalo Bills locker room favorite is headed to a conference rival.

The Kansas City Chiefs are set to sign Shane Buechele off the Bills’ practice squad, per Adam Schefter, which will end the quarterback’s three-year run in Buffalo.

The Bills will now be looking for a new option to replace their former third-string signal caller.

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QB Shane Buechele now has passed his physical and is signing with the Chiefs. https://t.co/97HJE1Ulj1

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 22, 2025

Chiefs in need

The Chiefs have lost two quarterbacks to injury over the last two weeks, including Patrick Mahomes, who has been declared out for the season due to a knee injury. Additionally, Kansas City’s backup QB, Gardner Minshew, left this past week’s game, also due to a knee injury. He, too, is expected to be lost for the final two weeks of the year.

Buechele has a previous connection to the Chiefs, who signed him to their practice squad after he went undrafted in the 2021 NFL Draft. He was released by the team before the start of the 2023 season.

Time in Buffalo

Buechele was initially signed by the Bills days after the Chiefs released him, and was later signed by the Bills to a reserve/future contract at the end of the '23 campaign. He was lost due to a neck injury and was subsequently placed on Injured Reserve in August 2024, missing the entire season. He was re-signed by the Bills this past March and has spent the 2025 campaign on the team’s practice squad.

The 27-year-old QB did not appear in a regular-season game for the Bills in his three seasons with the team.

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Aug 23, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA; Buffalo Bills quarterback Shane Buechele (6) drops back to pass against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the third quarter at Raymond James Stadium. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Loss in the locker room

Since Josh Allen has developed into a future Hall of Fame QB, the Bills have focused the roster/practice squad spots available on players familiar with their franchise gunslinger. That includes backup QB Mitch Trubisky and Buechele, all of whom grew close over the past few years.

Buechele is replaceable on the field, as during his time in Buffalo, the hope was that the team would never require his services. But in the locker room, Buechele had become a friendly face for Allen, and his departure will, at the very least, be felt in that sense moving forward.

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