The knock on Patrick Mahomes coming out was his mechanics and his footwork needed help. He had such a big arm that he was able to get away with a lot.
Our own MNChiefsfan looked at the tape and agreed. I recently spoke with our Texas Tech blog, Viva The Matadors, for an article coming out later and they brought up his footwork. Andy Reid said he needed some work with the fundamentals too.
On the flip side, Alex Smith is supposed to be very good with the fundamentals. Tyler Bray was raw like Mahomes coming in but he’s entering his fifth year in the league (yes, really, five years).
So, in that context, this video on all three of those guys dropping back and throwing a pass in OTAs this week is pretty interesting. Video comes via David Eulitt of the KC Star.
#Chiefs quarterbacks Alex Smith, Tyler Bray and Patrick Mahomes work in camera-open portion of Tuesday’s OTA practice. @KCStar pic.twitter.com/6ecCFiMsQP
— David Eulitt (@davidphotokc) May 30, 2017
I’m not trying to sit here and say I know anything about being a quarterback in the NFL - I’ll leave that to the experts - but I can see the difference in the footwork here. Mahomes has a lot of extra steps it looks like.
I’ll stop there before I get too deep into analyzing too much of a 17-second practice tape and let Mahomes take it over.
“You see Tom Brady, you see Alex, you see all those guys in the pocket how quick they are with their footwork and how they get the ball out fast,” Mahomes told reporters after practice on Wednesday. “I have to get like that.”
Down the road what’s going to be fun is looking at Mahomes in preseason this year and next and comparing it to his mechanics in college.