A wild ride for Chiefs quarterbacks in 2019. Here’s more on that and what’s ahead
The Chiefs starting quarterback won the Super Bowl MVP. Enough said.
2019 FINAL ROSTER: Patrick Mahomes, Matt Moore, Chad Henne
2020 FREE AGENTS: Matt Moore, Chad Henne
Position review
All is well that ends well, right?
It was a more eventful season for the quarterbacks than the Chiefs would have preferred, but it concluded with a 24-year-old quarterback holding the Super Bowl MVP award in Miami.
The full story just didn’t unfold quite so neatly. On a Thursday night in October in Denver, Mahomes lay motionless on the field with a kneecap so far out of place that some teammates admitted they thought his season was done. The owner did, too. “It didn’t look like a knee,” tight end Travis Kelce remarked.
Miraculously, Mahomes missed only two games and showed virtually no effects of a dislocated kneecap that typically requires long layoffs. The final numbers weren’t what they were during his 2018 MVP season, but Mahomes still finished with 26 touchdowns and only five interceptions. He threw for 288 yards per game and had a 105.3 quarterback rating. That’ll do.
And his best work came in the postseason. He threw for five touchdowns in the 24-point comeback against the Texans, and yet it was an in-game sideline speech his teammates pointed to as much as the performance. He threw for three more scores against the Titans in the AFC Championship Game — which was also the setting for perhaps the best run of his career, a 27-yard scramble tiptoeing down the sideline and bowling over a defender into the end zone.
Mahomes wasn’t at his best for the Super Bowl ... for three quarters. But true to his nature, he proved unflappable, completing 8 of 12 passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Chiefs back in the fourth quarter. The comeback sealed the game’s most valuable player award.
Despite his midseason absence, the Chiefs still finished this season with the fifth-ranked passing offense in football. They got some help from an unexpected actor. Thirteen days before the season, they signed Matt Moore to occupy the No. 2 role after an ankle injury to Chad Henne in the final preseason game. Moore, who had been coaching the quarterbacks for a high school football team in California, won a key game against the Vikings. Without that victory, the Chiefs wouldn’t have later received a first-round bye in the postseason, thus altering their route to the first Super Bowl championship in 50 years.
Moore threw for four touchdowns and 659 yards in 2 1/2 games. He did not turn the ball over once.
Looking ahead
Mahomes, Mahomes, Mahomes.
That’s the plan anyway.
Mahomes is just 24 years old, already the natural leader of the locker room and a player who insists there is room for growth. Barring something unforeseen, he leaves the Chiefs secure at the position for years to come.
He has two years remaining on his rookie contract, but he is first eligible for an extension this offseason. While Chiefs owner and chairman Clark Hunt has said the timeline to extend his contract is 12 to 15 months, there is some motivation from both sides to address it sooner rather than later.
Mahomes is the only quarterback on the roster under contract for 2020. But, hey, that’s not a bad place to start.
On the chopping block?
The Chiefs spent nearly $5 million on two players to back up the best player in football. That number will likely be trimmed in 2020, which could mean a choice of Moore or Henne rather than both. In 2019, Moore was the far cheaper option, mostly because his other opportunities had dried up. His two-game stint proved he can still play.