Chiefs’ Mitchell Schwartz on the ‘big challenge’ of protecting Patrick Mahomes
Chiefs offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz has played eight seasons in the NFL, and he’s seen his ups and down.
Most of those tough times were in his first four years in the league with Cleveland. The Browns won 19 total games and the high-water mark was a seven-win season in 2014.
Since joining the Chiefs ahead of the 2016 season, Schwartz has played for a division winner these past four seasons. He capped it off with the Super Bowl championship in February.
On Monday, Schwartz was on the “Pat McAfee Show” and discussed his time with the Browns and the Chiefs. Schwartz also talked a bit about blocking for quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“That was one thing in Cleveland, I was young, I didn’t really know any better. I always thought we were going to be good every year,” Schwartz said. “Joe Thomas would be a little more pessimistic than I would going into the season, just because he always had a sense of realistically what a roster was going to look like and how good he thought the team could be going and that was something I didn’t realize or appreciate. As a young player, you just have that eternal optimism and ‘hey we added some good players, I think we’re going to be pretty good this year’ and it didn’t click.
“So being here now with Pat, yeah, it’s awesome and then on the flip side as an offensive lineman, I’m literally protecting the MVP of the league, the Super Bowl MVP, and so that puts the onus back on us up front especially to do our best and give him as much time as possible. We don’t want him to take hits, to get hurt or any of that stuff, so it’s a big challenge.”
Here is a clip shared by the show:
