From the moment Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes have been teamed up together they have been the perfect combo. They are like peanut butter and jelly, beer and pretzels, or spaghetti and meatballs. Having to choose one or the other is like having to choose between your children.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what we are going to do here.
In the NFL the head coach’s fate is often tied to the QB. If you look back last year you could argue Ron Rivera and Jay Gruden ultimately lost their jobs because of the play their QBs put on the field. Ron Rivera had Cam Newton under center, but he was lost to injury. Newton was replaced by Kyle Allen and Will Grier. Neither QB was any good and the Panthers record reflected that.
Jay Gruden had three different QBs start in Washington throughout the 2019 season. Colt McCoy, Dwayne Haskins and Case Keenum all started at least one game during 2019. None of them were great and again, their record reflected that.
Andy Reid has been fortunate to have some good signal callers under center throughout his career. The thing that he has always done though is maximize their skillsets.
While Reid was in Philadelphia he had Donovan McNabb for a large chunk of his tenure. McNabb had a great career, but was never a great passer. For his career, he was below 60 percent completion. However, he threw for almost 40 thousand yards and over 230 touchdowns. Reid was able to squeeze every once of talent there was out of McNabb.
Reid also was able to take Alex Smith and give him the most productive years he has ever had in the NFL. Smith never passed more for than 3200 yards before he got to Kansas City. Once he got to Kansas City he never threw for less than 3200 yards.
Reid has proven he is an offensive genius throughout his career and perhaps his greatest trait is his ability to adapt. He knew what he had in Patrick Mahomes and he began adapting the offense to his strengths before he even took over as starter.
Reid was implementing RPO’s and college schemes Mahomes was running in college and blending it with the already potent west coast offense Reid had run his entire career. The result was beautiful. Mahomes burst onto the scene and did something that very few QBs had done before him and by very few I mean only one other QB ever, Peyton Manning. He threw for over 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns and won MVP. He then backed that up with a Super Bowl victory and MVP.
Mahomes is only 24 years old and people are already asking if he retired today if he would be inducted into the Hall-of-Fame. That may be a little much at first glance, but he has the best first two years as a starter in the history of QB play.
The talent that Mahomes has is something the NFL has never seen. He literally gives the Chiefs a chance to win in every game the play, no matter how poorly everyone around him is playing. Reid has done what he has done his whole career, which is maximize the talent at QB in front of him, but Mahomes is more important to Kansas City going forward.
The Chiefs have searched for decades to find their franchise QB. The wait was worth it because they now have the best player on the planet and a chance to win multiple Super Bowls with him at the helm.
