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Chiefs Provide Perfect Environment for Patrick Mahomes' Development
DOUG FARRAR
As a result, the Chiefs have had a reliable but limited quarterback situation. They can trust Smith to do what he does and nothing more. Through his four years in Kansas City, he's averaged 312 completions on 483 attempts for 3,392 yards, 19 touchdowns and seven interceptions per season, with little variance from year to year.
The system isn't exciting and has a clear ceiling, but it works for the most part. Still, you can't blame a coach for wanting to bust out of that predictable set of results, especially when they put disproportionate pressure on the defense and the running game to make up for the explosive plays Smith can't create.
Just as Harbaugh stuck with the tantalizing upside of Colin Kaepernick after Smith suffered a concussion halfway through the 2012 season, the Chiefs' need for more dynamic plays informed the decision to move up and take Mahomes, despite him having played in a college offense that hasn't produced anything close to an NFL-level quarterback.
Smith completed 15 passes of 20 or more yards in the air last season, according to Pro Football Focus, ranking 25th in the NFL. Mahomes, meanwhile, threw 15 touchdowns on passes 20 or more yards in the air for Texas Tech last year, per PFF, with 35 completions. That's why the Chiefs wanted him, and that's why they're smart to let Smith hold down the fort until Mahomes is ready to seize control.
Though the systems differ from school to school, most spread quarterbacks are accustomed to thin playbooks with simple play verbiage, stuff that's easy to spit out when you're in a no-huddle offense.
"[College spread quarterbacks] never had to say, 'Red Switch Right Closed End Right Split Z Halfback Flat' — they don't know who to talk to when and when to take a breath," Childress told Clark.
That's the common issue, but based on Mahomes' conversation with Bleacher Report in mid-April, Chiefs fans shouldn't fret too much about his ability to pick up the verbiage of Reid's offense from a complexity standpoint. When asked for the most complicated play call he had in college, he gave this back in rapid-fire fashion—not just the call, but the concept:
"Probably 'Green Rug Rock Pop 2 East Bill Log 95 Z Post B Will.' Pop is play action, and the formation is Green Rug Rock—that's the backs behind me. Rug means that the B back [second running back] is on the line of scrimmage. We have our 'Y' receiver in the game, and our 'Z' receiver, and the H-back is out [away from the formation]. 'Pop 2 East Bill Log' means that we're going to fake our outside zone to the right, with the B-back blocking in front. We're going to fake that. 'Log' means the backside tackle is going to lock on the [backside defensive] end, and '95' is our concept of the play. We tag a Z Post [the 'Z' receiver running a post route], and for the B-back, we tag a 'Will.' [the second running back blocking the weak-side linebacker]."
Mahomes will have to learn an NFL playbook, and he'll have to adjust to defenses that are far better and more complex than anything he had to deal with in college, but that's par for the course with college quarterbacks. He's coming from a no-huddle system in which he didn't go under center, and the nature of the offense he played in forced defenses to blitz infrequently and drop to cover areas of the field far more often. Mahomes seems aware of the differences, and in this environment, he's en route to the development he'll need.
But Mahomes will need to move past the tendency to freelance far too much with deep passes if he's going to be a consistent distributor in Reid's offense. His four interceptions on deep passes in 2016 tell a far more positive story than what the tape shows. Against Texas, he threw seven deep balls that could have been picked. Some almost were to varying degrees, and they certainly could have been against NFL defenders who are far more efficient and practiced at closing to (and catching) the ball.
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