Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes jokingly laments missing open receiver on viral sideline pass
Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy would have preferred that quarterback Patrick Mahomes simply step out of bounds on a third-down play in Saturday’s preseason game against the Cardinals.
Five Arizona players were in pursuit, so perhaps that would have been the wisest decision. Instead, Mahomes jumped toward the sideline and threw the ball across his body.
The pass glanced off the hand of wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling and the ball fell to the ground. Video of the crazy throw went viral, even though it was, you know, an incompletion.
“I tried to give Marquez a chance,” Mahomes told reporters after the game. “I don’t know if he knew I was going to still throw it since I was so close to the sideline, but it makes good work. Being able to scramble around and work that scramble drill, I thought we did a good job of that on a couple of occasions today.”
Valdes-Scantling was covered on the play, which made the chances of the pass being completed even less likely.
However, one Chiefs player was wide open. I mean, no one was around tight end Travis Kelce. Take a look at this photo, which was shared on X (you know, Twitter) by Zack Eisen.
That came to the attention of Mahomes and he had a funny response to not seeing Kelce on the play.
Mahomes wrote: “Can’t believe i missed it.. @tkelce”
Had Mahomes somehow seen Kelce, that pass would have needed to travel 45 yards across the field and 15 or so feet downfield to get to Kelce.
Could Mahomes have made that throw? Kelce certainly thought so because his hand was in the air.
This story was originally published August 22, 2023 at 12:27 PM.
