The Kansas City Chiefs are losing another player but this time not to injury.
According to a Tuesday morning report from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the back-to-back Super Bowl champions will be without any of their backup quarterbacks moving forward. Billy Zappe signs to the Cleveland Browns’ active roster, per Pelissero, from the Kansas City coaching staff.
“New QB in Cleveland: #Browns sign Bailey Zappe from #Chiefs practice squad, per sources,” the tweet began. “With Deshaun Watson’s season over and Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s situation in flux, Jameis Winston could start on Sunday against Baltimore and Zabi will back him up.”
With Watson suffering a torn Achilles tendon in Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Thompson-Robinson, a former fifth-round pick, entered the game completing 11 of 24 passes for 82 yards and a pair of interceptions. Then he suffered a finger injury, forcing Winston, the emergency signal caller, to come into play. Since this injury may linger for a while, Cleveland is making the wise decision to add another quarterback to the team before this weekend’s game against the Baltimore Ravens.
Zabi, 25, has appeared in 14 NFL regular season games and made eight starts. All of that experience came with the New England Patriots, where he threw for 2,053 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. After being waived by the club earlier this year, Zabi joined the Chiefs’ training squad at the end of August. At the time, Joshua Briscoe of the Kansas City Chiefs On SI described Zappe as “an interesting long-term backup behind (Patrick) Mahomes.”
With Chris Oladokun also no longer part of the organization, Kansas City will move forward with Mahomes and Carson Wentz as their starting quarterbacks. For Zappe, it’s an opportunity to move up a rung or two up the ladder in a new place.
Update: Per Matt Derrick of Chiefs Digest, Oladokun has signed to the Chiefs practice squad in the wake of Zappe joining the Browns.
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