Patrick Mahomes is throwing interceptions in camp. Is it cause for worry?

We’re not (at Arrowhead Pride) keeping an official count — and we shouldn’t be — but it sure seems that Patrick Mahomes was being intercepted more often as Kansas City Chiefs training camp continued Wednesday at Missouri Western University in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Wednesday’s session had several live periods (with real tackling).

On one of Wednesday’s picks, it initially appeared that someone had gotten a hit on Mahomes’ arm as he threw, but the quarterback later explained that he had simply called the wrong play and no one was where he expected them to be.

Still... it’s a matter of concern.

Or is it?

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

It’s important to remember two things about this:

First, the Chiefs are now likely to consider interceptions as an acceptable risk with a quarterback who is physically able (and psychologically inclined) to stretch the field. It’s what they signed up for with Mahomes.

Second, Andy Reid made it clear on the first day of training camp that one of his goals was not to stifle Mahomes’ personality.

“You surely don’t want to stifle that at all, “ he said. “One thing that [Mahomes] is blessed with is he has good vision, so you don’t ever want to stifle that and put him in a box with that. Allow him to see. Is there going to be a hiccup here or there? Yeah there’s going to be a hiccup here or there, but you don’t want to stifle that at all.”

Reid went on to say that they are coaching Mahomes not to hesitate — especially in camp.

“If there’s an interception here or there let’s learn from it,” Reid said. “Let’s challenge the offense, not only the player, but challenge yourself within the offense and see what you can get away with. If there’s an interception we will fix that, but don’t hesitate. If you see it, let’s shoot it and go.”

For his part, Mahomes believes that the ability to properly judge risk versus reward has to come from these training camp reps.

“I think it just comes with practice. We have a good defense. Those guys break some balls. If I throw an interception in practice, I have to learn that I can’t do that again. I think that this training camp will help me with that — learning when I can take chances, and when I can’t.

“You want to make the big play. You want to throw a touchdown every single play, but at the same time you have to know it is a process. These defenses are good. You have to make sure you take what they give you and don’t go for the home run every time.”