Does Patrick Mahomes Trust his WRs?

Phillip Maxwell

My opinion is that he doesn’t, not yet anyway. Not until a pressure player emerges from the herd.

Look, I am not saying the man has Pistanthrophobia — fear of trusting others — or anything to that extreme, but he clearly is having some trust issues with his Wideouts. I mean, who could blame him really? It’s like he is playing a game of Hide and Seek with his WRs, and they are doing an absolute phenomenal job of staying out of sight by hiding behind the defenders.

.

.

Short of yelling “Olly Olly Oxen Free” during every offensive passing play, what else is Patrick supposed to do? His most targeted Wide Receiver has been Rashee Rice with 19 targets in 4 games, connecting for 13 of those. You are probably thinking, well hell, that isn’t that bad. Except for the fact that those 6 incompletions hit Rice smack dab in the bricks! But if I had to pinpoint one Receiver that has somewhat-ish gained Patrick’s trust, it would be Rice.

Don’t even get me started on Skyy Moore. The 2nd round hopeful that was plucked from the 2022 NFL Draft has been targeted 15 times and has connected for 7 of those. That is a whopping, shocking 46.6% completion rate… is he sleepwalking? The fact that Moore hasn’t become a more integral part of this offense yet is concerning. Patrick couldn’t hold in his vexation for Moore during last Sunday’s game against the Jets as the entire football watching world saw him scold Moore for his poor route running.

.

.

Travis Kelce who — notably — is a TE, and the oldest player on the roster behind long snapper James Winchester has been targeted twice as much as any Wide Receiver on the roster. This feels like 2014 all over again when the Chiefs leaned entirely on their TE’s and RB’s to find the End Zone.

That 2014 squad, lead by Alex Smith, managed to go an entire NFL season without throwing a touchdown to a Wide Receiver.

.

.

A feat that hadn’t happened since the 1964 NFL season when the 2-10-2 New York Giants did it. However, the 2014 Chiefs are the only team to pull it off in the 16 game era, although they did manage to fare a little better than the Giants, ending their season 9-7.

It might seem like I am going a little overboard with my 2014 comparison here since 2 of the WRs have already managed to find the End Zone this season, but… in 4 games, Mahomes has connected for a TD 4 times to his TEs, 2 times with his RBs and only twice with his WR’s. When in the RedZone, Mahomes has his go-to guys, and they don’t include his WRs.

Patrick has dropped back and chucked the rock 142 times in the last 4 games… 74 times to his WRs, 42 times to his TEs and 26 times to his RBs…..close to a 50-50 split between the WRs and the TEs/RBs.

.

WRs are 35 of 74 for a 47.2% completion rate

TEs are 27 of 42 for a 64.2% completion rate

RBs are 22 of 25 for a 84.6% completion rate

.

_______________________

Link to Evolocity — We Buy Houses

If you mention ArrowheadOne, we get a commission.

_______________________

.

Looking at these numbers, is it any wonder why Patrick looks off his reads in hopes of finding one of his TEs open instead? I can’t prove that is what is going through his head as he drops back, but my gut says this is exactly what is happening. Then, if the TEs are locked up, he looks to either dump it off to the RB or run the ball himself.

For Forbes.com, Jeff Fedotin, has written an article called, “The Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes Is Running More Than Ever” in which he says,

.

“Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Deshaun Watson, Justin Fields. Patrick Mahomes has more rushing yards then [than] each of those athletic quarterbacks. That’s right. The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, known for his prodigious arm talent, is winning games with his legs.”

.

I used to be hard on Alex Smith for dropping his head early and taking off rather than give his WRs a chance, but if he wanted the first down, he was often left with no choice. The funny thing is, in 2014 Alex had 49 rushing attempts for 254 yards…. and in the first 4 games of the 2023 season, Patrick has already rushed 23 times for 154 yards. Yikes! Mina Kimes has nailed it:

.

.

It took JuJu a few games last season to get the vibe of what Patrick likes in his Receivers route running, but he eventually became a very dependable target and actually ended 2022 with a 77.9% catch rate after the slow start.

I didn’t think I would miss JuJu, but here I am killing it.

.

Release the hounds… and… Justyn Ross!!

.

Finally… a Yogi Berra Truth/Quote:

.

“It’s like deja vu all over again.“

.

Phillip Maxwell — ArrowheadOne

.