Patrick Mahomes was blunt with his Chiefs teammates this week. The subject? Himself
The collection of Chiefs quarterbacks rolled through some film this week, opening the meeting with the play-by-play from the previous game. And soon enough, those interceptions popped onto the screen.
You know the ones. Patrick Mahomes made a pair of inexplicable throws at MetLife Stadium last weekend, one of which had him muttering some choice words to himself and the other sharing a similar sentiment to his teammates during an impassioned halftime speech.
When they appeared on film, offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, for one, wasn’t planning to say much. After all, Mahomes knew. He’d shared with coaches, teammates, media — anyone who would listen — that there was one person at fault.
“You don’t need to beat it down,” Nagy said. “We just move on from it and learn.”
But when the interceptions appeared, someone else did speak up.
Mahomes.
“I just gotta be smarter,” he said, according to other quarterbacks in the room, and then he elaborated on what he meant by that. Which we’ll get to.
We’re just a month into the NFL season, and despite an opening-night loss to Detroit, the Chiefs are in the spot they so often finish the regular season: atop the AFC standings. But on his day at the lectern earlier this week, their quarterback said this: “I just haven’t played very good to start the season.”
Sure, Mahomes is at least partially posturing, shielding justifiable criticism for a wide receiver group learning on the job. A true disciple of Andy Reid, in that way.
Last week, though, is the exception. It was on him. Mahomes provided a reminder that the solution can sometimes turn into the problem.
But also why.
And how.
It’s those elements that can turn this into a short-term blip. When Mahomes isn’t going right, you can usually trace it to two things: footwork and decision-making. He’s had that conversation before, even publicly, almost as though if he says it frequently enough, it will become muscle memory. Maybe that’s why he insisted on speaking up during film review.
On one interception last week, he threw the ball off his back foot. On the other, he shuffled sideways rather than planting or moving forward in the pocket. Sometimes he gets away with that. Sometimes it prompts a night with really bad accuracy. Beyond that, though, both passes never should’ve been thrown. The intended targets were covered.
That’s fundamentals, and that’s decision-making. As for combination of the two? Mahomes will be at his best on some Sundays when he’s at his most boring. That’s a painful sentence to type for someone who would prefer to write about the unique rather than the mundane.
But it’s tougher yet to the quarterback who’s experiencing it, and that’s the foundation of his “be smarter” message in front of teammates. You can’t just chalk it up to a bad night on the mound. Instead, look at why his fastball was off the plate.
“I’ve had spots like this in my career where I haven’t had the best few weeks in a row, and so I have to make sure that I can go back to the fundamentals and try to be better for the team and then rely on other guys to make plays,” Mahomes said. “I think that’s somewhere where I can be better — just getting the ball out of my hands and let these other guys make plays.”
He actually already made that adjustment in the fourth quarter of last week’s win against the Jets. It’s why he completed seven straight passes to open the go-ahead drive. It’s why he ran instead of forcing throws on the game-sealing drive.
He’s exaggerating his place in offensive struggles that too have probably been a bit exaggerated, by the way. The Chiefs are third in the NFL at 393 yards per game, ranking in the top-10 in both passing and rushing. But it hasn’t all looked completely cohesive just yet.
As Mahomes said, he’s been here before — defenses begging him to let everyone else make the plays — though not quite to this extreme. Teams are dropping maximum defenders into covering a new batch of receivers, hoping Mahomes will do what he did a week ago — grow impatient and try to make a play anyway.
Mahomes is the least-blitzed quarterback in football, using data from PFF. Only 14.8% of his dropbacks include an extra rusher. The second-least blitzed starter in the league, Patriots quarterback Mac Jones, still sees extra rushers on 22% of his dropbacks. That’s a wide margin. For reference, Brock Purdy and Jalen Hurts are blitzed on half their dropbacks.
A trip to Minnesota might provide the exception. The Vikings blitz more often than any team in the league. But Mahomes knows what waits on the other side. A call for patience.
“It’s something that I have to continue to get better and better at throughout my career,” he said. “Sometimes when stuff may not be going well or if I want to get that deep shot going, I’ll try to force it.”
It’s natural.
It’s nit-picking, even.
But the teams that play their best in January and potentially February are those that solve their September and October problems quicker than the others.
What we’ve learned with Mahomes is this isn’t the kind of problem you solve once and then move on. It’s a constant work in progress. The opponent is providing the constant reminder.
Already, just one month into the season, we’ll have a peek into how he responds.