Three SI writers say Patrick Mahomes is the most surprising thing in the NFL

In a story published on Tuesday, the staff writers of Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback each wrote about what they considered to be the most surprising thing of the NFL season.

Two were surprised by Le’Veon Bell’s holdout on the Pittsburgh Steelers. One was surprised by Adrian’s Peterson’s re-emergence with the Washington Redskins. There were stories about how the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers have been surprisingly good, and how the New York Giants have been surprisingly bad. There was a story about Jon Gruden’s return to the Oakland Raiders, and one about Sean Payton’s second act with the New Orleans Saints.

And three of them wrote about how surprising Patrick Mahomes has been for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018.

Kalyn Kahler said that because Mahomes had been raw coming out of Texas Tech, she expected him to have growing pains — but he hasn’t yet looked like a first-season starter.

I didn’t even have the Chiefs in my preseason playoff predictions and now I am picking them to play in the Super Bowl, so you could say I definitely wasn’t expecting Mahomes to light it up the way he has in his first full season as a Kansas City’s starter.

In preseason, Kahler picked the Minnesota Vikings to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl LIII — and predicted that Sam Darnold would be named Offensive Rookie Of The Year.

Bette Marston said that after two MMQB writers picked the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl in preseason, she asked to have Mahomes included in the graphic used in the story “almost as a joke.” But she’s on board now.

Mahomes, along with Kareem Hunt, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce and coach Andy Reid, have turned Kansas City into appointment viewing, and the Chiefs-Rams clash in Week 11 in Mexico City has to be the most anticipated game of the second half of the season.

Copy that, Bette. But why do you hate Sammy Watkins?

Jonathan Jones told about when the visited Chiefs training camp in St. Joseph last summer, and saw Mahomes making a lot of mistakes.

I was told by everyone that he was just seeing what did and didn’t work, but I left there believing he’d be a risk-taker in 2018 and you’d have to live with the mistakes. So far he’s accounted for 31 touchdowns and seven picks for the 8-1 Chiefs.

So at least now we finally know who was counting up all of Mahomes’ interceptions in camp!

So that’s three of 13 MMQB writers who think Mahomes is the most surprising thing in the NFL this season. We know of three who weren’t surprised. Back in preseason, Robert Klemko and Mitch Goldich were the writers who picked the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl. Another one — Conor Orr — picked the Chiefs to lose to the Carolina Panthers in February.