Kansas City Chiefs find new backup for Patrick Mahomes

Backing up the reigning Most Valuable Player in the NFL is hardly an attractive job for everyone. But Matt Moore, 35, jumped at the chance, reportedly signing with the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday as the understudy to Patrick Mahomes, who is his junior by a dozen years.

Moore, who must dust off cobwebs, was not ready for retirement even though he found no takers for his services around the league last year and during the current training camps.

He has been a starter but not regularly since 2011, when Mahomes was barely out of middle school. In all, he has opened 30 games in 11 seasons with Miami and Carolina. Thirteen of those starts occurred eight years ago, and he has mostly played off the bench since then. A lot of practice is required to NOT play, and Moore has accumulated it.

The vacancy in K.C. opened when second-stringer Chad Henne broke his right ankle while being sacked in Saturday's game against Green Bay. He is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday.

Among the starters whom Moore supported was ... Henne. He got the call in 27 games with the Dolphins from 2009-11.
Moore also has held a clipboard on the sideline for Jay Cutler and Ryan Tannehill in Miami, plus Jimmy Clausen and Jake Delhomme with the Panthers. Which means the gap between starter and substitute in K.C. is the widest Moore will ever experience.

The healthy pair of backup Chiefs QBs was deemed not ready for the prime-time chore of stepping in if Mahomes goes down.
Chase Litton, signed a year ago out of Marshall, spent 2018 on the practice squad. Kyle Shurmur joined the Chiefs this season out of Vanderbilt. Neither was drafted.

Moore might be most remembered for an insignificant incompletion thrown in the playoffs after the 2016 season against Pittsburgh. He was flat-out leveled by linebacker Bud Dupree, a blow that would have sent others to the locker room, but bounced up and continued playing.