Why Patrick Mahomes tries to ‘test’ Chiefs teammates at camp — and the ways he does it
Sandwiched in the middle of a two-hour training camp practice, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes took a snap near the goal line, dropped back and launched a pass toward the corner of the end zone. It was a basic fade pattern, with Justyn Ross as the intended target, and considering the dozens of other throws Mahomes made Tuesday, an incomplete pass is hardly worth mentioning.
Well, except maybe this one.
One of the most innocuous throws is actually one of the most symbolic. The Chiefs have actually not yet worked with Ross on that particular pattern in the red zone, Mahomes would say, but it’s coming — the ensuing layer in a playbook Ross is learning.
So Mahomes threw it before he ever explained it.
“That’s not something that he is necessarily taught to do, but it’s the next step, so let’s try it out here,” Mahomes said. “And if he messes up and doesn’t do it right the next time, then whenever he gets to the game days, he’ll do it right and score a touchdown.”
Let’s not read too much into the fact that Mahomes mentioned Ross playing on game days, because the point isn’t about Ross anyway. It’s about players like him. Or players in the same situation.
First training camp with Mahomes.
It’s not long ago that the themes of these training camps derived from the theme of whatever Mahomes might be working on. The offense goes as he goes, after all. And thus, we would focus on his adjustments to the changes in defensive schemes he had seen a year earlier.
But now? The bulk of his adjustments are to the Chiefs’ changes.
On the heels of a championship, the Chiefs have strayed from the personnel consistency they prized after their previous Super Bowl — gone are the days of “Run it Back,” even if the headliners of Mahomes, Andy Reid and Travis Kelce have stuck around.
A season in which the Chiefs are trying to repeat as Super Bowl champions is not about consistency. Instead, it’s about the ability to adapt and still produce consistent results.
A key difference exists there, and it most prominently exists here, in St. Joseph. After years of sitting in meetings like a student, Mahomes last year began taking over a portion of them as the instructor— sometimes for just a play, but sometimes for broader concepts. It’s a practice he’s carried on in the initial week of this year’s camp.
“Essentially, he’s a coach,” running back Jerick McKinnon said, and then McKinnon provided an example of Mahomes stopping an installation period Tuesday because he saw something he didn’t like. “He definitely has that freedom and control within the offense.”
He does now.
Mahomes termed this an “evolution of being in the quarterback position.” It’s not only knowing the offense, but teaching it. And it’s more than a nice bonus for the Chiefs. It’s a requirement.
A year ago, it was receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore and Justin Watson who were new to the offense. Now, it’s receivers Rashee Rice, Richie James, Ross and to a certain extent still Kadarius Toney. But it’s also a pair of new tackles to bookend the offensive line in Donovan Smith and Jawaan Taylor.
And as only a teacher would, Mahomes finds himself “testing” the new guys on the field.
“I like to test guys — because I feel like now I have a good sense of the offense. So I try to do stuff to see how guys react,” he said. “I mean, that’s using a lot of different cadences throughout practice (to) see if the offensive line will sit in there with the new guys and be off the ball at the right time.”
There will always be change on an NFL roster, but the Chiefs never so clearly made that point as they did a year ago, when they overhauled their wide receiver room. And when a change pays off in the manner that one did, those decisions tend to stick around. Frankly, they should stick around. The whole purpose should be to improve, but also to refrain from stretching a budget simply to keep the group together.
A year ago, the overhaul at receiver served as an outlier. Heck, Mahomes even held his own mini-camp, of sorts, to accelerate any learning curve.
But it’s not an outlier. It’s the start of a trend, and not a short-term fad. This is how these training camps will tend to unfold now — every bit a part of Mahomes’ routine as his A, B and C workout days.
“Obviously we do some stuff out here (in which) there might be mistakes,” Mahomes said. “And we go in the film room, and Coach Reid lets me talk a lot. Obviously he’s going to be getting his points across because he’s the master of the offense, but he can let the other guys hear it from me. And (he) gives me the freedom to do that.”
This story was originally published July 26, 2023 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Why Patrick Mahomes tries to ‘test’ Chiefs teammates at camp — and the ways he does it."