Kansas City Chiefs: Every First Round Draft Pick Since 2000
EVERY CHIEFS FIRST ROUND PICK – 2017 NFL DRAFT: PATRICK MAHOMES
The Chiefs were in an interesting spot in the 2017 NFL Draft. They needed a quarterback but held the 28th overall pick in the first round. In today’s NFL, getting one of the top quarterbacks past the middle of the first round is nearly unheard of.
Many thought that the Chiefs would stay put at pick 28 and hope that one of the top quarterbacks would fall to them or that they’d draft a defensive player instead. We were all floored when the Kansas City Chiefs not only traded up but traded up 18 spots to draft a quarterback.
That quarterback was Patrick Mahomes, who had lit up the scoreboards while at Texas Tech. Mahomes was certainly someone that Chiefs fans had their eyes on during all of the draft talk, but Deshaun Watson was the more well-known name due to playing at Clemson and leading them to a National Championship.
The Chiefs went with Mahomes and it was the first time they had selected a quarterback in the first round since 1983 when they went with Todd Blackledge. It was the best time to grab a quarterback too, as the Chiefs still had Alex Smith and were planning to let Mahomes sit behind him for a year before taking the reigns.
Mahomes did indeed stroll the sidelines as a rookie, but made his NFL debut in the season finale in Denver. It was Mahomes’ first career start and he went 22 of 35 for 284 yards and an interception while leading the Chiefs to a comeback win over the Broncos.
The buildup for that game was unlike anything Chiefs fans had experienced before. Many members of Chiefs Kingdom had never experienced the team drafting a quarterback in the first round, so the Patrick Mahomes Experience has been a whole new journey for most of us.
Since this article initially was published, we’ve witnessed Mahomes doing great things. He won league MVP in 2018 after throwing for over 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns and the following year saw him win a Super Bowl. He led the Chiefs from behind in all three of their playoff games that season.
Mahomes was most definitely worth the trade-up in the draft because he’s given Chiefs fans something they hadn’t had before – A franchise quarterback who they took in the first round. What a dream.