How Patrick Mahomes and his Chiefs protectors, KC’s O-line, fixed what held them back
Seven weeks ago, after bruising his hand against the Patriots and before discovering against the Broncos that he’s a snow guy, Patrick Mahomes spoke for the first time about what by then was something of an open secret.
The Chiefs quarterback had allowed his footwork to get sloppy, particularly since returning four games earlier from a dislocated kneecap.
Some of that was in not planting his feet, not stepping into throws and too often bailing clean pockets. In short, he made plays more difficult than they needed to be. The man who changed a franchise by maximizing every play had suddenly gone the other way.
“It’s just not executing at a high-enough level and it starts with me,” he said at the time. “I feel like there were times in the (Patriots) game when I could’ve stepped up and bought a little extra time or stayed in the pocket.”
Over the next few weeks, he would repeat this self-criticism, until sometime after the Bears game or so, when it became irrelevant. Plays were back to being maximized. The Chiefs were back to keeping scoreboards moving. Mahomes was back to being Mahomes.
Since then, the Chiefs’ offense has made distant a distant memory of its previous struggles. Football is imperfect, so we can’t say never, but Mahomes rarely breaks clean pockets. His footwork is the best it’s been at this time of year — he noted that late-season fades had been a career-long habit dating back to high school — and the offense has been even better the last four games than it was in breaking records in 2018.
This is the story of how that came to be.
Becoming accountable
Within the telling of this process you will find some signatures about not just who the 2019 Chiefs are, but how they got to Super Bowl LIV against the San Francisco 49ers.
“You’ve heard me say this,” offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said. “Brett Veach and his staff, coach (Andy) Reid and his staff, they have done a hell of a job in not only bringing us some great players, but they brought us good people. I don’t think that gets credited enough.”
The first part of this is a word that Bieniemy uses a lot: accountability. Bieniemy is something of an accountability extremist, actually. The way he sees it, Mahomes breaking the pocket too early was a lack of accountability.
Because the charge is not just to admit your mistakes, but to focus only on your job, and what you can control. In Bieniemy’s view, unnecessarily busting pockets signals a lack of focus, a quarterback worrying about someone else’s job. In those moments, the quarterback is not being accountable.
This is obvious, but we should say it anyway: At least some of this was also about injuries. Mahomes was playing behind a makeshift line — particularly that first game back against the Titans — and on a knee that he didn’t yet fully trust. But, still. No excuses, and for whatever it’s worth, quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka does not believe these issues can be blamed on injuries.
“You have to trust in others,” Bieniemy said. “That’s what it means to be accountable.”
That it even became a topic is evidence of this team’s willingness to own mistakes. Some who follow the Chiefs closely had noticed it being an issue, but it would not have been discussed as broadly if Mahomes had not mentioned it.
So, that’s something. A quarterback scrambling — regardless of circumstance — leads to many assuming the line failed ... but here the reigning MVP was telling the world that when he runs away it’s often his fault and not his blockers’.
“He’s never going to blame anyone else,” center Austin Reiter said. “That’s what you love about him.”
That goes both ways.
“A quarterback can really only trust what they’re given,” right tackle Mitchell Schwartz said. “If you’re giving up pressure on the edge, and he feels constricted from the tackle position, it’s hard for a quarterback to stay in there and feel and throw if all that space is condensed.”
A good attitude is nice, but it’s also useless without the work. Mahomes spent time after practice on his dropbacks and on stepping into his throws. He watched film with a particular eye on protection, noting how often he could have given his receivers a better chance and a fresh focus on which indicators should take him toward the sideline.
Talking, and tools
The Chiefs’ quarterbacks and offensive linemen meet regularly in blitz meetings, the details of which are entirely specific to each opponent.
They discuss how to recognize which looks are likely to result in which blitzes, and how to communicate the blocks. Sometimes that means sliding protection toward the extra defenders, sometimes it means relying on man-on-man blocks when the original call was a double.
Often, it’s a combination of those and other methods — the linemen call them tools.
“You’ve got your hammer, you’ve got your crescent wrench, you’ve got some things,” line coach Andy Heck said. “And over the years that has evolved.”
The progress — like most things with Mahomes — came quickly. He followed the worst three-game stretch of his career by completing a combined 50 of 67 passes (75 percent) for 591 yards, four touchdowns and one interception in wins over the Broncos and Bears.
Perhaps most telling, he made regular throws inside the pocket while pressure was on the way.
“The New England game, I’d say he was really drifting too much in the pocket,” quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka said. “Really after that game, we started focusing on the fundamentals, and I think he’s gotten better every game since.”
It needs to be emphasized that Mahomes’ emphasis on trusting his protection coincided with that protection’s improvement. The Chiefs’ best two pass-blocking grades have come since that Broncos game, according to Pro Football Focus.
Meanwhile, over that same stretch, the Chiefs’ offense is scoring more often and putting up more points than per possession than it did in 2018.
“Once he got back comfortable, and got to trusting what he saw and what was in front of him, you’ve noticed the sky has been the limit,” Bieniemy said.
This is easy to forget now, but there was a time this season when the Chiefs’ offense was described — inside the building and out — as being out of sync. One more time: At least some of that was injuries.
But the fix did not come until Mahomes talked openly of a bad habit, protecting the linemen who protect him, and they worked together on a solution.