Patrick Mahomes Closes Out the Preseason in Style

Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs first round pick, may not play for awhile. The expectation is that veteran Alex Smith will start all year, if healthy, while Mahomes learns in practice and on the bench. On Thursday night, he got one last chance to shine in public.

Mahomes finished the preseason 34 for 54 for 390 yards passing, 4 touchdowns, and no interceptions. Last night, he whipped up this throw, which is something that only a handful of quarterbacks can even think of doing.

Only a humorless cynic would suggest a checkdown in that situation. Yes, Mahomes also threw some passes that could have been intercepted. He’s going to be a maddening, fun, thrill ride when he gets around to playing, and totally redeem himself with plays like that.

It also provided the rare 4th preseason game body language GIF.

Alex Smith will keep his job, for one season, while the Chiefs are in contention and he is playing well. But this situation has a lot of parallels to Mike Shanahan drafting Jay Cutler after a 13-3 season with Jake Plummer at quarterback. Denver was actually 7-4 but had lost two in a row when the switch was made in Cutler’s rookie year.

There couldn’t be more polar opposite quarterbacks on the same team, and it is going to be a storyline if Smith does struggle this year.