Before Patrick Mahomes Was a Headliner, the Chiefs Could See He’d Be a Star

Mahomes was crafting his first professional highlight reel.

Childress, who worked with the offense, said he would be standing on another field during practices, watching his first string. Reid would walk past and quietly say, “When you’re watching tape later, make sure you look at Plays 3, 8 and 9 from the defensive period.”

Later, when practice was over, Childress and the other offensive coaches would queue up the plays and frequently watch them two or three times. It reminded them of the Texas Tech tape they had watched. Mahomes would run sideways, his eyes watching a receiver run across the field, then suddenly throw the ball to a completely different area of the field.

“It was ridiculously good stuff,” Childress said.

Brett Veach, the Chiefs’ general manager, said watching the Mahomes practice tape became “like a phenomenon” at training camp, with coaches and executives running back to the team’s dormitories to get a peek.

“That doesn’t normally happen,” Veach said.

To say the least, the Chiefs were heartened by the potential of their top draft pick, but Smith threw for more than 4,000 yards in the 2017 season. Mahomes never saw the field until the regular-season finale, after his team had clinched its playoff spot but could not move up in the conference standings. Mahomes led the Chiefs onto the field at Denver before 75,928 amped-up fans on Dec. 31, 2017.

“We were lucky to get a peek at him going against the real thing in the N.F.L.,” Reid said. “Do you ever really know without that?”

Mahomes completed 22 of 35 passes for 284 yards and led the Chiefs to a late game-clinching rally. Moreover, some of his play resembled film from the training camp practices.

“He wasn’t unnerved at all, it was just Pat throwing it downfield, throwing it sidearm, underhand, eyes closed, you name it,” fullback Anthony Sherman said. “He did whatever he wanted to do.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/sports/football/Chiefs-patrick-mahomes.html?emc=rss&partner=rss