thependulumswings

Just three days before 2015 vanished and 2016 arrived a nondescript Advocare Texas Bowl game ended with LSU well ahead of an outmanned Texas Tech team, 56-27.   Unless you were a fan of either team its unlikely you watched it, much less remembered it.

The headliner going into and the story line coming out of the game was that Leonard Fournette ran over, around, and through the less talented Red Raiders.  But buried within the game was a stat line of Patrick Mahomes II, the Tech QB.  It read 28-56 for 370 yards and 4 TD’s.  Those numbers sound like so many other inflated,”run and gun,” forgettable QB’s that passed through the dust that Lubbock is.  Sonny Cumbie, BJ Symons, Billy Joe Tolliver, Graham Harrell, or Kliff Kingsbury don’t exactly evoke comparisons to greatness once they left that pass happy offense.

But Mahomes got his numbers that night in a different and impressive fashion that left this staff member duly impressed.  LSU’s defense can get after you.  He sat coolly in the pocket till flushed.  When flushed he completed passes to his left after scrambling right.  He completed passes to his right after scrambling left.  He ran only when it was a last resort.  He ran well when he did.  Gritty.  Smart.  Confident.

Mahomes was a junior then.  He completed his senior year and entered the 2017 draft last year.

The New Orleans Saints held the 11th pick in the first round.  The Buffalo Bills had the 10th.  Nine picks were gone and the woeful Bills were on the clock.  Sean Payton, head coach for N.O., knows a thing or two about quarterbacks.  Working side by side with Drew Brees masterfully carving up NFL defenses for 12 years lets you see what it takes to be one of the greatest of all-time first hand.

As Payton recalled it on the Dan Patrick show, “Here it was—pick 10—and we have two players in the bubble, Lattimore and Mahomes. Kansas City traded up to 10 and took Mahomes, which pushed Lattimore to us, but once we were at pick 10 with those two players we were assured one of those two players.”

Payton said that if the Chiefs would have taken Lattimore, the Saints would have selected Mahomes.  They loved both.

Marcus Lattimore was the defensive NFC rookie of the year in 2017 .  Mahomes rode the pine serving a one year apprentice at the shoulder of another quarterback whisperer Andy Reid.

Now its 2018 and Mahomes is starting and his Chiefs are 4-0, good for the best record a quarter way through in the AFC.  His Monday Night Football performance rallying his team past the loud crowd in Mile High Stadium was very impressive.  It reminded one of a certain otherwise forgettable 2015 Advocare Bowl.  However, this stage was much larger, the lights much brighter, and the crown much louder.

Is Patrick Mahomes the next Drew Brees?  Whoa!  Pump the brakes.  Four games does not a career make.  Brees has performed at the highest level for a dozen NFL seasons.  Afterall, last year DeShaun Watson was the next greatest QB starting as a rookie and tearing it up for the Texans. This year he has looked very average.  NFL defenses always adjust.  Always.  Oh, and by happenstance Watson was picked right after Lattimore.

Mahomes then Lattimore then Watson it went, 10,11, and 12.

Having Andy Reid and Sean Payton both wanting to employ you at QB is indeed high praise.  Over time we will know more.  For now the start is impressive.