Quote:
Originally Posted by Wallcrawler
. It also doesn't help trying to lock Pat in a box he doesn't belong in. Past three years what is the number one defensive key on Mahomes?
DO NOT LET THIS KID OUTSIDE THE POCKET OR HE WILL DESTROY YOU.
So, in typical Chiefs fashion, we do the defenses job for them by demanding he stay in the pocket.
It's not who he is or what he does. Let the kid play football. Get some bootlegs going, rollouts, moving pocket, etc.
The guy is deadly when he's on the move. He delivered amazing, nigh unstoppable results. We can plainly see what is happening forcing him to be a pocket passer.
He's a gunslinger, not a statue.
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This is just an absolutely false narrative. It's like people forget what Patrick Mahomes looked like when he had full trust in his line and would brilliantly glide throughout the pocket as he evaded a pass rush.
Mahomes is better when he is in the pocket and he keeps his eyes down field, but recently he's not scanning the field for his receivers. Instead, he's got his eyes on the guys attempting to rush him. He has no trust that his guy will win and so hes running to avoid nothing. Since he is too busy worrying about phantom pass rush and leaving a clean pocket he isn't seeing any of his open receivers until it's basically too late and he tries to throw it 100 mph to his target before that guy is no longer open. Being on the run while trying to force the ball to a guy that may not even be opened anymore is causing him to throw short or if he does get it there our guys are having a hard time catching his heaters, which leads to ints.
He is the best at escaping an actual pass rush, buying time for a receiver to get opened, and setting his feet right before he completes an incredible throw. He is however still better when he stays in the pocket. Defenses knew that he was almost just as good when they were getting pressure as he was when he was staying in the pocket. The D coordinators said "**** it", stopped blitzing and decided to drop everyone back, because the more guys they have in coverage the better chance they had to cover the WRs and be in his throwing lanes.
Up until the last few games he was making them pay and still scoring at will with an occasional turnover, but recently he doesn't trust his line and is just running for no reason and making terrible throws. He's just currently in his head, but all it's gonna take is one monster game this weekend to awaken a beast.
Back to the main point. No he was not better when he improvised. People have just forgotten how good he was in the pocket.