Kansas City Chiefs: What Did Patrick Mahomes Learn Last Season

The time for the Kansas City Chiefs to have their own future quarterback will finally start in 2018. What did Patrick Mahomes learn last season?

The Kansas City Chiefs are sailing through new waters in 2018 as they start their future with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. It had been since 1987 when the Chiefs drafted quarterback Todd Blackledge that the team drafted a quarterback in the first round of a draft. More than three decades later, Chiefs fans are experiencing something new and couldn’t be more excited.

Many fans wanted to see Mahomes start right away in his rookie season, but the organization thought it would be best to let the rookie sit behind veteran quarterback Alex Smith last year. Smith went on to have the best season of his career in his final season with Kansas City and still, the hype train for Mahomes could not grow any larger.

We got a glimpse of what Mahomes had learned last season behind Smith when he started against the Denver Broncos in week 17. Playing with almost entirely backups on offense against the starting Broncos defense for most of the game, Mahomes gave fans a reason to be excited for the change despite Smith’s breakout season.

As stated repeatedly on the @FantasyRecord, we believe Patrick Mahomes is money. So is this picture. #TeamHuevos @PodcastOne #GoNFFC pic.twitter.com/nz3Y7vcid1
— Brad Evans (@NoisyHuevos) July 14, 2018

Speaking to media members for what will be the last time till the team reports to training camp in St. Joe, Mahomes talked on Saturday at the National Fantasy Football Convention in Fort Worth, Texas about what he learned last season.

"“I learned a ton,” Mahomes said. “Alex was an amazing guy. He really brought me into the quarterback room and accepted me and did his thing and had a great season himself and at the same time taught me things. Just to see what it took to mentally prepare for the game and what you have to do in order to have success on the field was something that I’ll utilize over this next season.”"

Preparing for each game is a huge leap from college to the NFL which is something that Mahomes talked about. Prepping was different than in college and much more extensive.

"“The amount of film watched, especially by the quarterback, is tremendous,” Mahomes said. “College, you watch the team that you play and then you watch yourself and you think you’re good, but when you’re in the NFL, you watch the team that you play, you watch if you played them two or three years ago, you watch all this different stuff. It’s stuff where you have to spend that time in order to get that competitive advantage.”"

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While some might think Kansas City needs to slow down the hype train and compare Mahomes to every other “rookie” or first time starting quarterback, the situation is incomparable. The young quarterback has the best supporting cast of any quarterback in the NFL according to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell and certainly better than almost any quarterback has ever come into.

After leading his team to a victory with backups like Albert Wilson, Demetrius Harris, and Anthony Sherman as his starting cast, Mahomes will take over an offense with elite talent at every level. Tight end Travis Kelce, wide receivers Sammy Watkins and Tyreek Hill, and running back Kareem Hunt will all be surrounding Mahomes in 2018.

"“It helps out a ton, especially it being my first year of playing quarterback,” he said. “I can throw a five-yard pass and Tyreek (Hill) can take it to the house. It’s stuff like that — you have (Travis) Kelce who catches everything, you have Sammy (Watkins), who I think is really evolving his game and getting better and better every single day and you have Kareem (Hunt), so if I just need to get a couple yards, or if I need a touchdown, I just hand it to him. To have those weapons, it helps a quarterback, always.”"

The Chiefs essentially replaced Albert Wilson, or last years second-receiver with Sammy Watkins in an offense that had great production already. Adding Watkins to the mix will only increase the chances that the second-year quarterback will be successful. It would be hard for Mahomes to have a bad season with all of the talents on offense.

Next: Is it too early to panic about the Chiefs secondary?

There will still be learning curves and mistakes made in the 2018 season that comes along with a new starter. What Kansas City did was surround Mahomes with the best supporting cast possible so that he has every opportunity to succeed.

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