Back in 2017, it was widely expected that either three or four quarterbacks would be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. As the draft drew closer, Patrick Mahomes was increasingly confident that he would be one of them.
"As the process went on, I got a feeling that I was going up in the draft," Mahomes said on the podcast his teammate, Travis Kelce, hosts with his brother, Eagles center Jason Kelce. "I had a couple of teams that said they were gonna draft me, and that's true. It's not like these coaches are making that up. I talked to them during the draft process and they were like, 'Hey, if you're there, we're gonna take you.'"
But Mahomes knew where he wanted to go, so he sprang into action himself.
"I kind of gave a little inside info to the Chiefs," Mahomes said. "I was like, 'Hey, if y'all let me go ...' At the time, I didn't know about the Saints, but I was like, 'If y'all let me go 12 or below, I'm gonna get drafted by someone else.' So, I gave the Chiefs a little bit of info on that because I wanted to be here."
Eventually, the Chiefs made a deal with the Buffalo Bills for the No. 10 overall selection, trading the Nos. 27 and 91 picks, as well as their 2018 first-round pick, for the right to draft Mahomes. But Mahomes also had further help to ensure that he ended up in Kansas City. That help came in the form of former Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy.
"The first day that I met Coach [Andy] Reid was at the facility. We had the meetings, like the top 30 visits. So, I was in there for like five hours. He's just going through plays, going through plays. I'm going to just give you all the inside scoop: Matt Nagy, who was the offensive coordinator then, he really liked me. So he gave me the plays that they were gonna go over the night before," Mahomes said. "So, of course, I crushed the meeting. I stayed up all night studying those plays."
The rest is NFL history, as Mahomes and Reid have quickly become one of the best quarterback-coach duos we've ever seen. Nagy, meanwhile, would go on to become the head coach for the team that took the first quarterback off the board (Mitch Trubisky) in 2017, the Chicago Bears. He spent four years there, but was fired following the 2021 season. Now, he's back in Kansas City as Mahomes' quarterbacks coach.
