‘Go crazy, dawg!’ Why Shane Buechele’s perfect day got a laugh from Chiefs’ Travis Kelce

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce walked across the locker room Saturday night, phone in hand while making his way to quarterback Shane Buechele.

This was after the Chiefs’ 38-10 preseason victory over the Arizona Cardinals, and Kelce wanted to show Buechele what he’d just found.

And also what he was laughing at.

“Go crazy, dawg!” Kelce said with a smile, showing a photo on his phone for Buechele to see. “That boy was smiling.”

Buechele sheepishly grinned while seeing the Twitter picture of himself, which had been posted to the Chiefs’ main account.

The snapshot — taken during Buechele’s 15-yard touchdown run Saturday — continued a recent trend of images where the quarterback admits he’s worn a weird expression.

“My game faces, whenever I’m playing, are bad,” Buechele said later with a smile. “I’ve got to work on them, man.”

It was perhaps the only thing that went wrong for the third-year pro on Saturday, as Buechele made his case to be the Chiefs’ backup QB in going 10-for-10 for 105 passing yards during his first-half playing time.

Buechele said he’d learned from coaches a couple of days earlier that he would go in after starter Patrick Mahomes — this time ahead of Blaine Gabbert.

And while Buechele said he would like to tell you he prepared like any other game, the change in rotation definitely meant something.

“That’s a great opportunity to go second and show what we could do,” Buechele said. “So I was ready for it.”

He certainly looked like it.

Buechele led scoring drives of 88 and 60 yards, capping the first one with a touchdown run after he escaped the pocket. The former SMU quarterback admitted afterward he saw “a lot of green grass” before that open area closed quickly.

He only made the end zone because of a last-second decision. Arizona’s 238-pound safety Isaiah Simmons seemed prepared to take Buechele on at the goal line, but the Chiefs QB juked back to the inside to fall forward for the score.

“I shouldn’t have cut back on him like that,” Buechele said. “But I kind of closed my eyes and ended up in the end zone, so we’re good.”

The run awed many of his teammates, who ran down the sideline to celebrate the TD.

Mahomes also mentioned after the game that Buechele was “a little bit stronger-willed” than he might have been.

“I don’t know if I’m cutting back with that safety running in like that,” Mahomes said. “But he’s a playmaker, man. I think you saw that last week, you saw it this week. He’s made a lot of plays happen.”

Buechele says his growth this year has been helped by continuity. Going back to college, Buechele noted this is the first time he’s been able to remain in the same offensive system for three consecutive years.

Asked if he was striving to earn the No. 2 spot behind Mahomes, Buechele said, “Absolutely. That’s always the goal.”

“I feel confident in myself. I feel confident in my preparation every game, and I feel like I can help this team as much as possible,” Buechele said. “And so yeah, man, I’m hoping it’s a competition, and that’s how I’m seeing it and just taking it day by day.”

Gabbert followed Buechele by performing well, too. He completed 7 of 8 passes for 120 yards while adding a pair of touchdowns in the second half, saying he felt “good” about his effort.

“Just getting used to everything,” Gabbert said. “We’re executing the plays called and having a little fun.”

Gabbert, when asked about the Chiefs’ competition at quarterback, said he was more focused on just going out and executing play calls given to him.

“This is Year 13 for me this year, so nothing’s catching me by surprise,” Gabbert said of the QB competition. “You just go out there and have fun and play football.”

Gabbert and Buechele both impressed others around them. Mahomes joked that, as a Chiefs quarterback, he “probably played the worst of everybody that played today.”

Coach Andy Reid, meanwhile, told reporters he typically doesn’t have his incumbent No. 2 — Gabbert in this case — play in the second preseason game.

Reid, however, said he was pleased with what Gabbert and Buechele did Saturday.

“Both of them played great. That’s a good thing,” Reid said. “Both of them really played good football.”