Patrick Mahomes wasn’t a no-brainer prospect when he declared for the NFL Draft back in 2017. He had only recently given up baseball to focus full-time on football, and he played for Texas Tech, which was not a top college team. However, the numbers he was putting up in Kliff Kingsbury’s exciting Air Raid offense were hard to ignore: over 5,000 yards and over 40 TD passes in his junior year in 2016.
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In a duel with Baker Mayfield and the Oklahoma Sooners in 2016 (which Texas Tech lost 66-59), Mahomes tied the record for most passing yards in a game, with 734. He added 85 rushing yards for a total of 819 yards, which is also a single-game NCAA record for total offense.
He won the Sammy Baugh Trophy (best passer in the nation) and earned Second-Team All-Big 12 honors in his final season. This, despite the fact that his team went 5-7. However, that wasn’t enough to impress many NFL scouts. The Chicago Bears traded up to draft Mitch Trubisky at No. 2, rather than Mahomes.
Mahomes then fell to No. 10, where the Kansas City Chiefs traded up and snatched him. At the time, Mahomes seemed to be a development project behind Alex Smith, which is why Shannon Sharpe disliked the pick so much when it was made. “Patrick Mahomes, I don’t like it. I do not like this pick,” he stated.
“Like I said before, projects, quarterbacks are the only one[s] they’ll take a project and they’ll sit him and wait and, ‘oh he’s two years away’. Two years away and you’re paying him 5-6 million dollars a year for two years away? Everybody else that they draft, they expect them to be able to contribute right away.”
In hindsight, Sharpe’s take did not work out as intended, as Mahomes won NFL MVP in his first year as a starter in 2018. Cris Carter also had reservations about Mahomes. He preferred Clemson QB Deshaun Watson, who ended up going No. 12 to the Houston Texans.
“Andy Reid, the first thing he said was the kid (Mahomes) needs a lot of work, and is not gonna play… But why did you trade up to get him just to wait on him? … And I don’t believe in the system, the passing system in the Big 12, guys have not been successful with that transition to the NFL,” he explained.
“Now let’s get to Deshaun Watson, basically had 1,000 yards against Alabama with all those pros on the defense. And these other two teams traded up to get these other kids, and I believe Deshaun Watson is in the best situation with the Houston Texans.”
Shockingly, Skip Bayless was the only guy on the panel that day who knew what he was seeing in Mahomes. The polarizing pundit really liked the potential and physical tools Mahomes brought to the table. For once, Bayless was vindicated.
“I told you earlier, I still like the Patrick Mahomes move up for Andy Reid. Because I get all your negatives and all your knocks, and I watched him a lot. He has extreme ability, extreme arm talent, and I think he has high football IQ. It can be a little mad scientist IQ, because he’ll try things that you just can’t try. He makes plays off-schedule.”
Patrick Mahomes has clearly proven all the doubters wrong. Not only is he a serial winner, but he puts up gaudy numbers to match the team’s success. He’s not even 30 yet, and already he is a three-time Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP winner, a two-time NFL MVP, a two-time first-team All-Pro, and a six-time Pro Bowler. On top of that, Mahomes is well on his way to breaking many of Tom Brady’s statistical records.
Through a QB’s first eight years in the league (and remember, this includes Mahomes’ rookie year, where he sat behind Smith), Mahomes has the third-most passing yards, the sixth-best completion percentage, the most passing TDs, the second-lowest INT rate, the second-best passer rating, the most passing yards per game, the best success rate, and the most wins.
He’s also top 10 in game-winning drives and fourth-quarter comebacks. Safe to say, Sharpe and Carter could not have been more wrong.
