The Mahomes Mutation: The Chiefs Offense is Changing the NFL

The Mahomes Mutation: The Chiefs Offense is Changing the NFL – Most Kansas City Chiefs fans will admit it’s been a heck of a year, both on and off the field. Sure, with stories like the Rams game in L.A., AFC Championship fail by Dee Ford, Kareem Hunt’s lack of truthfulness, Kevin Kietzman out of bounds comments about Andy Reid, Channel TV5 half truth in reporting, Brooke Pryor zealousness to publicly expose a Chiefs player while not being sensitive to how her words would affect a child, and the Tyreek Hill tape debacle and eventual lack of a NFL suspension… it’s been a busy year to say the least. However, the biggest story of all is developing right under our own noses. It’s time to wake up and smell the aroma wafting from One Arrowhead Way. A sweet fragrance carrying with it, the winds of sweeping changes across the National Football League.

We all know that head coach Andy Reid has quite a coaching tree and that he’s also been an offensive savant of sorts over the years. Many coaches bring in new plays each year but Reid does this like he’s possessed with changing his truck’s oil filter every week (that reminds me, I need to get an oil change for my Rav4).

In recent years, Reid has brought in Brad Childress as a consultant, presumably to brainstorm plays to keep up with, or ahead of, the league’s other offenses. In the meantime, the Chiefs scouts have not only been giving the university ranks a good scanning for top talent but have been passing along plays they see which Reid can then use to fool the defenses of the NFL.

The counter, the no-huddle, a dive, a jet sweep, the complete route tree, timing routes, back-shoulder fades, pre-snap motion to determine coverage, disguised runs, use of the hard count, the I-formation, the Veer, the read-pass-option, inside screens to the TE, the wildcat, the Hungry Pig… Reid has incorporated it all (and more) and continues to bring it in. What’s even more impressive is that Reid knows how to get the right mix and sequence of plays called to force a defense to move one way while his offense is going the other. For Chiefs fans, it’s incredibly exciting to see what he’s got up his sleeve this year.

So, obviously, Reid hasn’t been doing this all on his own because it takes a village and as much as his scouts have keyed into the idea that he wants them to bring home the bacon — in the form of savvy college players — and the freshest plays as a well… he’s needed a premiere group of players on the offensive side of the ball to pull it all together. Now, that’s exactly what GM Brett Veach has provided him with: Patrick Mahomes, first and foremost.

You can point to Sammy Watkins or Tyreek Hill who was the product of John Dorsey, but the reality is that none of this would be happening without the extraordinary talents of Patrick Mahomes.

Mahomes the Metaphor

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but after one season — not even that long — broadcasters have already begun to compare other players to PMII. This has already begun to happen in game day action and while it may unfair to the QB’s coming up through the ranks, it’s going to happen, inevitably:

Patrick Mahomes has so many unique qualities, that if he stays healthy over the next ten years, he could become the standard by which all other QBs are judged.

Changing the QB/Athlete Model

If you talk about a baseball player throwing the ball sidearm to complete a double-play we all applaud that… and have done so for years. However, when addressing the traditional style of play for an NFL QB, coaches have been looking for the 3 and 5 step drop back passer who has that pure over the top throwing motion that you typically see and it’s been that way for 100 years, since Knute Rockne popularized the forward pass.

Much of the same traditional standards were in place in the NBA until Pistol Pete Maravich came along in the 1970s and began to use passes you would normally only see in a Globetrotter’s exhibition match. Ten years later, Magic Johnson made “The Pass” an art form in the game and most point guards were compared to him after that. Patrick Mahomes is having the same impact on the NFL game today.

I recall when Roger Staubach performed a shovel pass forward in the backfield to his running back for the first time. I nearly jumped out of my chair in disbelief and I thought, “Hey, that’s illegal.” Now, Patrick Mahomes is not the only QB trying the no-look pass, or the left handed pass. Mahomes performs these moves on a regular basis in practice.

There’s certainly a trickle down a effect in sports. What happens at the pro level… happens in high school… happens in middle school… and for even youngest kids playing the game. Right now, the combination of Andy Reid going full frontal with his “anything goes” approach to playcalling and stealing — uh, I mean borrowing — college plays, with Patrick Mahomes leading the way… the future of offense in the NFL, as we’ve known it, is under complete reconstruction.

Pass Versus the Run

In an AO article on Saturday called, “Runaway Train: Chiefs Offensive Prowess Promoted Defensive Disaster” Ransom Hawthorne said:

“It’s been well known, for some time, among league analysts, that running the ball just doesn’t pay anymore. There are specific circumstances, in the Red Zone, or inside four minutes, where it’s still important, but those are the exception rather than the rule. If you want a thorough breakdown of this argument, a tweet from Ben Baldwin of the Athletic is a great start. If you want it in five seconds, it’s this: passing plays are averaging about 7.1 yards per attempt, running plays 4.3 Y/A.

What fans need to know is that the Chiefs threw the ball 61.5% of the time in 2018 and even at that, they were only 10th in the league (meaning: 9 other teams threw the ball more). Perhaps even more significant is that only one team did not throw the ball at least 50% of the time, and that was the Seattle Seahawks (and that may be because their QB, Russell Wilson, runs the ball a lot after a play breaks down). The point is, the run game is truly diminishing in importance in the league… but having running backs who can catch the ball is not.

The Chiefs did not make a major acquisition at the running back position this offseason (Carlos Hyde and 6th round pick Darwin Thompson don’t qualify) and that’s a result of the team making a determined decision about improving the passing game more than the running game. That can also be confirmed by the first pick the Chiefs made in this draft coming in WR Mecole Hardman (you can argue that the first round pick was traded away for Frank Clark, a DL, but the Chiefs had to fix the defense first and foremost this offseason).

While Reid changes his offense every offseason, this year Reid has gone out of his way to take advantage of Mahomes unique ability: mental “recall.” It’s well known that PMII has a photographic memory. From James Palmer:

“Mahomes says he doesn’t really know what a photographic memory really entails, but said he his dad has told him he has it. Mahomes said anything he sees he just pretty much remembers it. School was that way as well as football.”

So, can you see the mad-professor Reid burning the midnight oil dreaming up schemes and plays he calls, the “Pat Plays?”

We may be on the verge of witnessing an offense like we’ve never seen before in the annals of the National Football League. Patrick Mahomes acknowledged the new plays this spring in OTAs and embraces them:

I hope Kansas City Chiefs fans all know what we have in Patrick Mahomes. He’s smart. He’s kind and gracious. He has a great attitude. He wants to be great. His has that “poise in the noise” as they say. He’s, one of the guys and works his tail off every day. Plus, what is lost on many is, that he’s incredibly accurate, perhaps the most important measure of a quarterback’s effectiveness.

Some will discount the gaming aspect of the following, but it does outline Patrick Mahomes superior traits. So, take it for what it’s worth to you:

If you designed a QB and included all the intangibles to go along with that blueprint, you’d have Patrick Mahomes. He’s like a dream come true for Chiefs fans. In the meantime, he and Andy Reid are changing the NFL game. Big time.

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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