How Alex Smith’s grace remains with Mahomes & Chiefs as they seek 1st Super Bowl triple
Entering the 2017 NFL Draft, then-Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith knew the team might trade up in the first round to select a man likely to take his job.
But that didn’t make it any easier after the Chiefs made a deal with the Buffalo Bills for the 10th overall pick and selected Patrick Mahomes — the man destined to reset the boundaries of the position and redefine what it means to be a Chiefs fan and even to live in Kansas City.
No one could have anticipated how transcendent Mahomes would become. Some even questioned his potential. But the move nonetheless was exhilarating and enticing news to anyone involved with or interested in the Chiefs.
Almost anyone.
“It’s not something you love, right?” Smith said with a smile on Thursday after a Sirius XM shift in New Orleans. “I was really hoping maybe I had a piece (of the future). And I felt like we were only a piece away at that point.”
The most vital piece, alas for Smith, proved to be Mahomes.
The two-time NFL MVP has led the Chiefs to five Super Bowls in the last six seasons and has a 17-3 postseason record. He can help put the Chiefs on another tier in the annals of sports history if they beat the Eagles on Sunday to become the first NFL team to win three straight Super Bowls.
But Mahomes’ story always will be tethered to Smith, who wasted not a moment sulking and set an example for all of us in how he both mentored Mahomes and thrived himself that season.
Simply put, what might have been one of the most demoralizing and complicated situations of his life summoned the best of Smith.
Think about that a moment: Smith went on to lead the NFL in passer rating that season and have the overall best year of his career — while knowing he was nurturing a replacement who often has said Smith was vital to his success, particularly in his first few years as KC’s starter.
“It was amazing for me to be able to step into a room with him every single day,” Mahomes said Thursday as the Chiefs prepared to play the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX.
That relationship has long since been understood.
But maybe few know why and how Smith rapidly made up his mind to set the tone, a tone that epitomized his grace and character and was fundamental in the development of Mahomes.
‘I can promise you this’
As he was processing what he called “the writing on the wall” and still thinking along the lines of “what the hell?” Smith had an epiphany of sorts.
While it helped that he had been reassured he’d be the starter that season as Mahomes got acclimated, he knew from previous experiences in San Francisco before he was traded to the Chiefs in 2013 how crucial it was to create a harmonious work atmosphere.
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“I’ve been in some really dysfunctional quarterback rooms where you’ve been miserable,” said Smith, who after being drafted No. 1 overall by the 49ers played for seven different offensive coordinators there.
So the last thing Smith wanted was to be in an environment where trust and cohesion was an issue, and he was determined to do all he could to prevent that.
Again.
In a strangely symmetrical bookend to events that led him to the Chiefs, Smith had demonstrated that generously selfless capacity in what proved to be his last season with the 49ers.
When Colin Kaepernick replaced him after he’d suffered a concussion early in the season, Kaepernick remained the starter through the 34-31 Super Bowl loss to the Ravens here in New Orleans.
“He coaches Colin now more than I do,” then-49ers coach Jim Harbaugh told reporters that week.
Rather than let any frustration fester, Smith called Mahomes shortly after the draft. He laughed Thursday as he reflected on the call, figuring he might have confused Mahomes.
But his message was clear and no doubt liberating for both — at least conceptually.
“‘I can promise you this: You’ll never have to worry about me undercutting you,’” Smith recalled saying. “‘That will never happen. It’s just too important to me. I’ve been in nasty situations, and it (stinks).’”
Then he added a particularly sophisticated and thought-provoking point:
“‘Your journey and my journey don’t conflict, right? I’m trying to reach my potential just like you, and those things don’t have to contradict each other.’”
‘It’s the right way’
So by the time offensive coordinator Matt Nagy first entered a meeting room with both of them in it and wondered “what’s the feeling going to be like?” … virtually any potential tension already had been reconciled.
Not that it was any surprise to Nagy, who calls Smith one of the “the greatest human beings” he’s ever known.
But it still was a relief to know there would be no toxicity to navigate because Smith, then 33, was “very respectful to a kid he didn’t have to be respectful to.”
And because the kid who wouldn’t turn 22 until that September was humble and quiet and a sponge.
Among the infinite things Mahomes absorbed from Smith were how to practice and lead and best practices for film study and game-planning and dealing with the media and simply even how to carry himself.
As the weeks went by, their camaraderie grew.
By way of example, Smith said sometimes coach Andy Reid or Nagy would leave the room, and he’d look to Mahomes for confirmation that what they just heard wouldn’t work.
“‘Am I crazy?’” Smith might say.
And Mahomes would shake his head with him and say something like, “‘No, dude, you’re right.’”
By mid to late season, Smith was openly consulting Mahomes about what he thought, say, during film work.
“He was far enough along that I did value his opinion, and I did lean on him,” Smith said. “Again, it’s the quarterback thing. It still works that way. And it’s the right way.
“Because even though only one guy can go out there, the preparation is so rigorous that to have guys to lean onto is really important.”
Certainly, the understudy appreciated the other end of that dynamic.
As much as the remarkably bright and self-possessed Mahomes might have had a head start on some of that because of being around his father’s professional baseball life, the first thing he said the other day was that Smith “taught me so much about being a pro. I know that sounds so simple.”
But when you’re just out of college and the game no longer is a hobby or something you do for fun, he added, there’s a vast amount to learn.
“There’s so much that goes into it other than just playing football,” Mahomes said.
Smith grinned as he thought about what Mahomes has become. He wonders if he’s gotten too much credit, really. And he reckons Mahomes would have emerged as a phenomenon “with or without” his influence and likely could have been great even in 2017.
‘This dude’s leading the league in passing’
But there’s a bit of a forgotten part of the equation.
Not just that there was something ideal for Mahomes about having that redshirt year under the tutelage of Smith as he learned Reid’s famously elaborate offense.
Something Mahomes pointed out when I asked him if it had been difficult for him to sit that season (until the regular-season finale at Denver after the Chiefs had clinched their playoff spot).
“Not necessarily …” he said, smiling.
For one thing, he said, Smith was such a good guy.
For another, he smiled and added, “I mean, what am I going to do? This dude’s leading the league in passing. How can we even get any better?”
Mahomes wasn’t exaggerating.
Smith not only led the NFL in quarterback rating (104.7), he also led the league in adjusted average yards gained per pass attempt (8.59) and lowest interception percentage (1.0) while throwing for a career-high 4,042 yards with 26 touchdowns.
When the Chiefs started the season 5-0, Smith was a legitimate early frontrunner for NFL MVP. He’d completed a league-leading 76.6% of his passes with an NFL-best 8.8 yards per attempt in throwing for 11 touchdowns with no interceptions.
But any potential conundrum regarding the Chiefs’ plans for Mahomes ebbed as they lost six of their next seven and fell in the first round of the playoffs — albeit in the bizarre forward progress/Marcus Mariota touchdown-pass-to-himself loss to Tennessee.
‘Really lucky’
In between, Mahomes was terrific at Denver.
He didn’t have to play in that game or have such a performance to be anointed the starter the next season, Nagy said.
But …
“It certainly made things a lot easier,” Nagy said. “It was confirmation.”
Especially since the Chiefs stood to save $17 million in salary cap space when they soon traded Smith to Washington — where he suffered a catastrophic leg injury that endangered his life before he launched one of the most moving comebacks you could imagine in 2020.
“Pain free,” he said Thursday. “Never thought I’d say those words. Really lucky.”
All these years later, Smith feels the same way about getting to work with Mahomes — whose feats he considers “unreal,” and whose ongoing “edge” to compete he views in the same category.
For his part, Mahomes sees Smith as a friend he can still look to for advice and someone whose influence will always be with him.
As for the Chiefs and Reid, Smith thinks about how they both traded for him and traded him away (with admirable transparency, he added, that is part of his reverence for Reid).
But that time in between, he said, “changed my life. … I mean, there are lessons that I’ll take with me for a long, long time.”
Including something he has to know that will always bear reminding:
He stayed a piece of it after all.