Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and where the Chiefs go from here

[Listen to MNChiefsfan TALK about this on his new podcast]

So as the Kansas City Chiefs offseason has taken a turn for the weird with the release (firing? “Parting of ways?”) of John Dorsey, we are forced to soldier on and gradually begin to turn our attention to other things.

Of course, considering this is a time of very little football news, that’s going to be difficult. Most of our attention is going to gravitate to the new GM search. But in the meantime, the show must go on and my endless terrible search for your approval through writing copious amounts about the Chiefs continues.

Naturally, it’s going to be difficult to write about anything other than John Dorsey after a week or so of thinking about nothing else with regards to the Chiefs. So let’s ease into it by writing about something sort of related to John Dorsey, OK? Let’s talk about Patrick Mahomes.

I’ve had a lot of people ask me some variation of this question over the course of the last few days. It’s actually gaining steam for some reason. The basic idea is people are concerned that Dorsey was pro-Mahomes and Andy Reid was anti-Mahomes, and now with Dorsey gone that leaves Reid hanging out to dry.

Personally, I’m surprised that people even view that as an issue. First of all, it’s not like there’s any doubt Mahomes was a very good QB prospect, regardless of what some people want to tell themselves. First of all, his film speaks for itself. Second of all, the doubts people have about him are generally overblown or not representative of what you saw from him in college (between those two articles you’ve got about five thousand words and approximately a zillion GIFs and deep stats about Mahomes, if you’re interested). But really, if you want to know that Mahomes was a good prospect, look no further than the fact that multiple other teams were interested in him (just Google “other teams wanted Mahomes” and you’ll get too many results to link here).

And seriously, if you’ve watched him that shouldn’t be surprising.

Why am I going through all that? Because it all goes against this idea that Mahomes was some kind of wild flyer by Dorsey that Reid would’ve been dead set against. Of course, there’s also this Andy Reid interview with Mike and Mike, in which Reid was asked about trading up to snag Mahomes. Reid called Mahomes intelligent (pointing out that it’s a must in the Chiefs offense), praised his strength and mobility, raved about his arm strength and ability to throw at all angles / platforms, called him an accurate passer, and talked up his ability to manage a locker room as a leader.

Look, I very much understand that we don’t always take what coaches say at face value. But the fact of the matter is that Andy Reid has raved about Mahomes in detail every time he’s been asked about him (way more than just that one interview). Since the draft, it’s even come out that Reid met with Mahomes for six full hours and walked away impressed at his football acumen.

And of course, there’s circumstantial evidence that Reid was in favor of moving up to grab Mahomes as well. First, there’s the fact that Clark Hunt clearly views Reid as “the guy,” having now ousted Dorsey and signed Reid on for another five years. Given that we know Reid and Dorsey reported to Hunt, the idea that Hunt would sign off on such a HUGE, franchise-altering decision if Reid (again, his guy) was adamantly against it is just absurd.

Then there’s the issue of Reid’s five-year extension, which was (as we all know) signed not only after the Chiefs drafted Mahomes, but after Reid had a chance to work with him at rookie camp and OTA’s. So in order to believe that Mahomes wasn’t Reid’s guy, you have to believe that Reid, after being forced (somehow) to sign off on drafting a player he didn’t want, then decided to stay with the team that was clearly going to be focused on developing said player as the primary component of his job over the next few years.

Reid will now be inextricably tied to Mahomes’s development. It will be a part of Reid’s legacy. If Mahomes becomes a franchise quarterback, Reid’s status as a Hall Of Fame coach will absolutely be cemented (no, I’m not kidding). If he fails, it will be a black mark on Reid’s resume. IF Reid didn’t like Mahomes as a player and didn’t think it was likely he’d develop into a good quarterback, he had the easiest out in the world with his contract ending in Kansas City. He could have just walked away, and his legacy would be completely intact (having helped turn the Chiefs back into a winner) without any blowback on him if Mahomes didn’t work out.

In short, every scrap of evidence we have indicates that Reid was all in with the Mahomes pick, from his comments following the draft to his re-upping his time with the Chiefs. There are plenty of things to worry about with Dorsey now out of the building, but this (at least, if we want to deal in facts and not speculation) is definitely not one of them.