Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes wants to cringe when he looks at video of some of the passes he tried early in his career. Mahomes looks at decisions he made in his first few games as a starter and shakes his head. Now 25, he refers to that 2017 and 2018 version of himself as “young Patrick.”
That’s one sign Mahomes is growing up as a quarterback, but another is his decreasing interception rate. In 2018, his first full season as a starter, Mahomes threw an interception on 2.1% of his pass attempts, which was 15th best in the NFL.
Last year he threw a pick on 1% of his throws, which was third in the league. This season, he has thrown one interception on a league-best 0.4% of his passes. He’s still on pace to throw 42 touchdown passes and for more than 4,600 yards.new nike nfl jerseys cheap
“Earlier in my career there are some throws I wouldn’t have made [this season] because they were dumb decisions at the time,” Mahomes said. “There were some throws I hope I still do make. It’s kind of playing with that fine line of being as aggressive as you possibly can but not being overly aggressive. I try to look back on every experience and learn from it. I think there’s a lot of positives along with some negatives that I can learn from.
“It’s a battle that I have with my nature. I want to throw it and take the risk every single time. But games like [recently against the Denver Broncos] when we were up a lot of points, you’ve got to realize you don’t have to take that risk whenever your defense is playing like they are and special teams is doing what they do.”
Mahomes’ big pass plays were down until Sunday’s 35-9 win over the New York Jets. He had his second career game with 400-plus passing yards and five touchdowns and had five completions of more than 25 yards.
Mahomes had only 11 completions of 25 or more yards in the first seven games. Instead of forcing throws into coverage, he was mostly content to take shorter passes that opposing defenses were offering.
“He’s fine with that,” offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said. “If those guys are going to play in the back end and play deep, he’s the first one to tell you, ‘You know what? They’re not covering them [on shorter routes]. Everybody’s playing deep so I’m going to find an open man [underneath].’
“He’s a gunslinger. He wants to go out there and show exactly what he can do. But … he’s doing a better job of taking what is given. [Defensive opponents] are playing far beyond what we expected sometimes. One thing he’s doing, he’s just finding the open guy. Those short- to medium-range [passes], we’ve got some guys that can catch and turn it up and make some special things happen. That just comes with maturity. It also comes with a growth process in understanding what we’re doing but also understand how teams are lining up and playing against us. So kudos to Pat. I’m very proud of where he is right now.“cheap nfl nike jersey
Mahomes’ QBR (85.4) and passer rating (115.0) are the highest of his career, another indication he’s having his best NFL season.
“You look at the quarterback rating and that and it’s always high for him,” coach Andy Reid said. “He’s doing a great job there, really managing everything, and I’m proud of the progress that he’s made in so many areas. But I don’t think he worries about all that. He’s OK if the run game works. As long as we’re winning, he’s real good with that. And he’s still going to end up with … the [big] numbers.”