Before the NFL Draft Chiefs GM John Dorsey and Andy Reid both said this year’s crop of quarterbacks need time to develop. They’re not ready to play right now.
At Texas Tech, Chiefs first round pick Patrick Mahomes had signals from the sidelines that would serve as the play call. In Kansas City, he’ll need to spit out a longer play call in a huddle and understand what it means. The concepts are more difficult (everything is more difficult).
So, how do the Chiefs know he can do that? Well, they don’t. But they did grill him at Arrowhead when Mahomes visited.
“We brought him in here and grilled him,” Reid said of Mahomes’ visit to Kansas City. “We had him here for six hours. When we got him in here we tried to bury him the best we could in order to find out. That’s the only way you can find out. That’s what’s real. We get him in here and we throw the kitchen sink at him and expect him to spit it out. When they don’t, we try to reteach it to them and spit it out again.”
Mahomes said he thought the visit went well, too.
“We drew up a ton of plays and they really tested my knowledge,” Mahomes said. “I feel like I did well. I feel like I drew them up really well and explained them. Explained what I did at Texas Tech and how it would relate and how different we were with how Coach Kingsbury let me really take control of that offense at Texas Tech.”
He’s a work in progress. He’s not ready right now. That’s what Reid reiterated last night.
“This is with every young quarterback, getting to know the coverages per your route that you’re going to ask him to deal with, per the drop that’s asked to make to throw against those coverages,” Reid said. “It takes a little bit of time to get all that down. Really, he’s not coming from a system that did that too much.”
That’s a frank answer: He’s not coming from a system that did that too much. Time. Patience. Those are the things they’re highlighting here.
That said ... I can’t wait to get impatient and scream for Mahomes. Should be fun.