KC Chiefs: Fans can’t compare Patrick Mahomes to Alex Smith in 2018
The KC Chiefs made a tough decision to trade Alex Smith this offseason and it’s important for the fanbase not to fixate on what Smith does in D.C.
When the Kansas City Chiefs traded up to draft Patrick Mahomes in the 2017 NFL Draft, we all knew the Alex Smith era was about to come to an end. Smith had one final season as the Chiefs quarterback, which ended up being the best season of his entire career.
Smith played his butt off knowing that he had a younger and cheaper option behind him on the depth chart. Once Mahomes played in week 17 of the regular season and looked like he was ready to take over full-time, the Chiefs knew what they had to do. A few months later, Smith was traded to the Washington Redskins.
With that trade, the Patrick Mahomes era officially began in Kansas City. The hype has been pretty outrageous all offseason long with Mahomes getting compared to a different Hall of Fame quarterback every week.
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It’s good that Chiefs Kingdom is excited about their new signal caller, but people are forgetting that Mahomes is basically a rookie this year. Yes, he’s actually headed into his second year, but this will be his first full year taking snaps for the Chiefs. That means growing pains are going to be aplenty for the Texas Tech product.
Meanwhile in D.C., Alex Smith will lead a talented Redskins roster in hopes of getting Washington into the playoffs. With Smith showing off big time last season, it’s a real possibility that he outperforms Mahomes in 2018. If that does happen, Chiefs fans can’t freak out and start criticizing the trade. We can’t have seller’s remorse (is that a thing?) when it comes to Alex Smith because we all knew this day would come.
If I’m being completely honest, I do think Alex Smith will have a better season than Mahomes, but that doesn’t mean the Kansas City Chiefs made a mistake in trading him. Smith is 34 years old and has always been a “play it safe” type of quarterback. Mahomes is 22 years old (he’ll be 23 in September) and will be airing the ball out often. Mahomes is also significantly cheaper and it was time for the franchise to move forward with a quarterback they drafted on their own.
Fans these days live very much in the now, so any time Smith plays better than Mahomes in a game, it’ll immediately spark a debate as to if the Chiefs made a mistake or not. The important thing to remember here is that Mahomes will be in his first full year and he’s going to struggle at times whereas Smith is a long-time veteran of the game. The chances of him having a better year than Mahomes are pretty likely.
Trading Alex Smith was the right move for the KC Chiefs and unless he leads the Washington Redskins to a Super Bowl, then fans shouldn’t panic over him outperforming Patrick Mahomes in 2018. Mahomes should be a good quarterback, but he’s still young and has a lot to learn.