Kansas City Chiefs: Interceptions In Training Camp Is Not a Major Concern

As the Kansas City Chiefs have been at training camp for a week now, there have been some interceptions thrown by Patrick Mahomes. It’s ok.

The Kansas City Chiefs have had their full roster at training camp for one week as of today. There have been many positives coming out of camp as well. Players coming back from injury looking great, players talking highly of what they see on the field, and great flashes from the new starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes. There have also been the headlines about the interceptions thrown by Mahomes.

There are a lot of things to remember when looking at practice interceptions. It’s also expected for there to be some interceptions as Mahomes is still learning. I wanted to go over why I think that fans are overreacting when they hear about interceptions at training camp.

The first thing we have to remember is that we are going to see more interceptions with Mahomes than we are used to. Former quarterback Alex Smith was notorious for keeping the football safe. Last season only having five interceptions on the season during a career year is something that fans are going to have to let go of.

The reason I say that fans are going to need to let go of that is that Mahomes is the complete opposite of Alex Smith in many ways. Since Kansas City moved up to draft the former Texas Tech star, we’ve known that there will be more interceptions than what we have grown accustomed to with Smith. There will also be an uptick in big plays.

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Mahomes is known for making and extending plays. He’s known for stretching the field and taking chances that most quarterbacks, especially Smith, would shy away from. Given the fact that Mahomes has extremely rare arm talent, he can take those chances more often with higher rewards.

There’s also the fact that this is Mahomes’ first training camp as the starter. He saw limited reps last year at training camp and only has one regular-season start under his belt. It shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that while he had a year to sit behind Smith, and I genuinely believe that he learned an exceptional amount during that time, he is still learning.

With the limited about of time as the starter, Mahomes is still learning what he can and cannot get away with. Jumping from college, especially the Big 12, to the NFL, there is an exceptional difference in what defensive players can do. Not only is the game faster, but players are better on the defensive side and can make plays where most of the defenses he faced while at Texas Tech couldn’t even dream of making.

Every interception that happens during training camp is a learning opportunity for Mahomes. He’s been highly regarded as a player that will not make the same mistakes twice. Head coach Andy Reid has stated numerous times in the last week that he wants Mahomes to take the shots when he see’s them. He doesn’t want him to hesitate.

Last but not least, one of the significant things that I took away from when I’ve attended training camp is that Mahomes is staying inside the pocket. My guess is that Reid wants Mahomes to work hard during training camp at getting better inside the pocket. We know that he can escape the pocket and make plays on the move, but staying inside the pocket is something that he needs to work on.

That’s not a knock on Mahomes by any means. It’s merely something that as a player he could work more on, and the Chiefs are making sure that he gets every opportunity to work on his weakness per say. If Reid was letting him escape the pocket every play during training camp, that’s when I would worry. Practice is the time to work on what you could get better at, not repeating what you’ve already mastered.

With that being said, there is no reason for Chiefs fans to be worried about interceptions happening at camp. If anything, take it as a positive that the defense that you are so concerned about is coming up with plays. That defense that everyone is skeptical of is doing their job in practice. There are going to be more interceptions this year, especially given it’s Mahomes’ first starting season, but there will also be more plays that make you jump out of your seat in excitement.