Patrick Mahomes was one pick away from Sean Payton featuring him as Drew Brees’ successor

Patrick Mahomes was one pick away from Sean Payton featuring him as Drew Brees' successor

Patrick Mahomes is currently the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, but if things had gone a little differently, he’d be a New Orlean Saint.

Mahomes was taken with with the 10th overall pick in the 2017 draft after the Chiefs traded two first round picks and a third round pick to jump up 17 spots and take the quarterback out of Texas Tech.

The New Orleans Saints were picking at 11, and if the Chiefs hadn’t traded up, they were going to put their chips on Mahomes and select him.

However, they were beaten to the pick, and we missed out on a major NFL ‘what-if.’ Former head coach Sean Payton revealed that the plan was to take Mahomes all along, but instead they picked cornerback Marshon Lattimore.

In fact, Sean Payton had even consulted with the Saints starting quarterback at the time. Drew Brees was in the war room at the time, and he knew that at some point or the other, New Orleans was going to have pick his successor. He saw the raw talent that Mahomes had, and he knew it would be the right choice for the Saints.

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Patrick Mahomes has done well for himself even if Sean Payton didn’t take him to replace Drew Brees

The Chiefs quarterback has turned in perhaps the greatest start to an NFL career by any quarterback. In his first full year as a started, Mahomes threw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdown, only the second player ever to do that. That feat earned him the NFL’s MVP award.

He almost went to the Super Bowl as well, stopped by Tom Brady and the Patriots in the Conference Championship. In his next year, Mahomes would not be denied. He took the Chiefs all the way to the Super Bowl and won it while taking home Super Bowl MVP.

In short, in his four years as a starter, Mahomes has been to the Super Bowl twice, won it once, made four straight Conference Championships, made the Pro Bowl four times, and was First-Team AP All Pro once. For just four years in the league as a true starter, that’s ridiculous.

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Post Edited By: Ashish Priyadarshi
Drew Brees Kansas City Chiefs New Orleans Saints NFL Patrick Mahomes Sean Payton

About the author

Ashish Priyadarshi

Ashish Priyadarshi is The SportsRush's content manager and editor. Ashish freelanced for 1 year in the NFL division before taking on an editorial role in the company. He then tacked on managing content while adding on a writing role in the NBA division. Ashish has been closely following the NFL and NBA since the 2012 season when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and Derrick Rose was at the height of his powers. Since then, Ashish has focused on honing his knowledge for both leagues in, even writing crossover pieces. In his free time, Ashish is an avid basketball player, he loves to watch movies and TV shows, immersing himself in the cinematic world. Ashish studies computer science and data science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and would love to mesh his love for sports with his technical skills.

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