Patrick Mahomes with the Chargers? Saints? Cardinals? Each had interest at 2017 Draft
When Patrick Mahomes sat down to watch the 2017 NFL Drafts, his agent had a number of different caps on hand.
The Washington Post noted agent Leigh Steinberg brought hats of the teams that he thought might have drafted Mahomes that night “based on months’ worth of conversations and information gathering.”
As we all know now, Mahomes placed a Chiefs’ cap shortly after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the Chiefs had traded up to No. 10 and taken a quarterback who would be a NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP.
But at least three other teams weighed drafting Mahomes that night. Here’s a closer look at how close Mahomes came to wearing a helmet with lightning bolt, a fleur-de-lis or a cardinal.
The Chargers
Before the Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV, former general manager John Dorsey said he was only concerned about one team on that draft day: the Chargers.
“They were at 7,” Dorsey told told The Athletic. “That’s the one I worried about more than anything in the world. Philip Rivers was 35 (the previous season). Once they took Mike Williams, we said, ‘We got this guy.’ ”
The Chargers took Clemson wide receiver Mike Williams with the seventh overall pick. But the Chargers took a long look at Mahomes.
In December 2018, Peter Schrager of “Good Morning Football” on the NFL Network, shared a bit more on the Chargers’ flirtation with Mahomes.
“(Chargers coach) Anthony Lynn is a Texas Tech Red Raider legend, like is one of the greatest Texas Tech players of all time,” Schrager said. “He calls up Kliff Kingsbury, the current coach of Texas Tech at the time and says, tell me about this quarterback, and Kingsbury raves about him says, ‘one Texas Tech Red Raider to another, this is the guy, you’ve got to look at him.’ They bring in Patrick Mahomes to the Chargers facility, knowing they have Philip Rivers, they’re like, let’s just take an informational meeting, he blows them away. Tom Telesco the GM, John Spanos the owner, he blows them away.
“Then they talk about it like Phil’s got more left in the tank, we can’t draft a quarterback, we’re right there and Phil still has some good years left. Let’s give Phil a weapon. What do they do the Chargers at the seventh overall pick and Patrick Mahomes on the board, do the following ...”
“Good Morning Football” then showed the moment the Chargers picked Williams.
Here is the clip:
The Saints
After the Chargers’ pick, the Panthers chose running back Christian McCaffrey and the Bengals selected wide receiver John Ross. Both of those teams had established starting quarterbacks, but there was reason to believe one of next four teams in the draft might pick a quarterback: Bills, Saints, Browns and Cardinals.
New Orleans had quarterback Drew Brees at the time and he was in the Saints’ war room as coach Sean Payton told the Times-Picayune in 2018. As it seemed the Saints might have a chance to take Mahomes, Payton had to share that bit of information with Brees.
“Drew was great,” Payton told the Times-Picayune about his talk. “It didn’t faze him a bit. He always thinks of the team first.”
Looking back, it may seem odd that Payton had interest in Mahomes, because over the last three seasons, Brees has completed 73.5% of his passes for 11,305 yards, 82 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.
But Brees had turned 38 in January 2017, and Payton was enamored with Mahomes’ ability.
“The one thing that stood out, this player could climb, escape, throw from all the positions,” Payton told the Times-Picayune. “And we play in an imperfect game where there’s protection issues. And we just saw him make throws going left, going right, through the pocket, up in the pocket, I mean really unique throws. And look, man, in a conference and on a team where they had to go into a game feeling like scoring 45 was gonna give ‘em a chance.”
Brees didn’t have to watch his coach make the call for Mahomes, because the Chiefs traded three picks for the Bills’ pick at No. 10, one spot ahead of the Saints. New Orleans instead drafted Ohio State cornerback Marshon Lattimore.
The Cardinals
Holding the No. 13 pick and seeing just one quarterback come off the board after the first nine players were drafted, Bruce Arians thought he’d have a good chance to draft a new quarterback.
Arians, who was the coach at the time, told Arizona Sports 98.7 in 2018: “We thought last year sitting there (at No. 13) we were going to have a shot at Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes. I loved both of them.”
The Texans ended up taking Watson at No. 12, so if Mahomes had been been available, there is a good chance he’d be playing the desert.
“We would have taken him,” Arians told the Washington Post. “Oh, there’s no doubt.”
But when Mahomes and Watson were picked ahead of the Cardinals, they drafted Temple linebacker Haason Reddick.
Thing is, Arians was surprised when the Chiefs swooped in and took Mahomes with the 10th overall pick.
“They had Alex Smith,” Arians told the Post. “We never thought K.C. was going to jump in front of us. We thought Houston might move up. … I don’t think anybody in their mock draft would have had K.C. moving up for a quarterback with the type of year Alex Smith had. He was awesome.”
