Kansas City Chiefs: AFC Blew It Letting Andy Reid Get Mahomes
By Erik Lambert
If there was one thing the AFC could feel secure about, it was that the Kansas City Chiefs were stuck in quarterback purgatory dating back over a decade.
This sounds harsh, yes. Alex Smith has been the consummate professional. A terrific game manager who didn’t make a lot of mistakes and made enough plays to win. Unfortunately that style has done nothing for them when it matters most. In three playoff trips since 2013, they’ve won one playoff game. Not all of that is on Smith, but QBs are expected to elevate their game in the postseason. By and large he hasn’t been able to do that.
Throw in the fact he’s pushing deeper into his 30s and the compulsion to take a quarterback in the draft was growing to a fever pitch. Not the the AFC had to worry. Kansas City was way back at the 27th pick. Their odds of getting a good one weren’t very favorable that far back. Then things got crazy as the Chiefs calmly traded up all the way to the #10 pick with Buffalo, of all teams, to hand them Texas Tech standout Patrick Mahomes.
A grave miscalculation
Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t be a huge concern. Mahomes is a project quarterback with a lot of mechanical flaws to work out. There’s no guarantee he’ll work out, right? Except the Bills may have miscalculated, and it could it end up cost them and the rest of the conference. They forgot that Andy Reid remains one of the best quarterback gurus in the NFL.
Remember this is a man who coached Brett Favre at his peak in Green Bay. He turned Donovan McNabb into a six-time Pro Bowler and got Pro Bowls out of Jeff Garcia and Smith as well. He knows how to get the best from a player at that position. The greater the talent, the greater the reward for the team. So handing Reid the best arm in this draft? Yeah, maybe not the best idea.
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Mahomes can throw any pass in the playbook. Yet his value goes beyond that. What makes him so exciting is his creativity. He excels at taking plays beyond their designs when needed and turning them into highlights. The improvisational skill is rare for men at that position, and Mahomes is gifted in that regard. So imagine if Reid is able to clean up the other problems from the recklessness to the poor mechanics?
Suddenly the entire AFC landscape will undergo a shift. It’s that significant. Reid is still just 59-years old. He’s not going anywhere. Give him the necessary time and this new partnership could be fun to watch.