The last time the Chiefs picked a quarterback in the first round was Todd Blackledge in 1983…
Blackledge was picked at No 7 and was a total flop. A couple years before that they chose quarterback Steve Fuller in 1979 – another bust.
And for the next nearly 40 years the Chiefs have made a living taking quarterbacks from other teams – veteran players for the most part on their down side.
A few of them worked out; like Joe Montana, Steve Deberg and Trent Green. Oh, and now Alex Smith.
KC was able to field a winning team often during the regular season with those QBs with many playoff chances.
The problem: close but no cigar – no Super Bowls – and only mild glory.
Only Montana was able to take KC to an AFC title game, which we lost to Buffalo in 1994.
The latest:
In a draft day shocker the Chiefs traded up to the 10th spot on, giving up several draft picks to Cleveland and took Texas Tech‘s Patrick Mahomes.
Deshaun Watson was also available, but John Dorsey and Andy Reid were in love with Mahomes the GUNSLINGER. Watson would go several picks latter to Houston.
Mahomes was named as a top 5 quarterback along with Mitch Tribisky, who went No. 2 to the Chicago Bears.
Ah but Kansas City wanted Patrick over everyone from the start.
Dorsey went into a long explanation on how impressed he and Reid were during the young man’s workout in Kansas City, his interview, his ability to make all the throws, his speed, his quick release and his Brett Favre style of play.
This player is not the usual play it safe quarterback style we have seen here for the last 20 seasons – think John Elway.
This guy can make the impossible throws look common.
The problem?
With Mahomes’ style of play comes more turnovers, INT’s and fumbles. His confidence can lead to mistakes.
It will take time to calm him down a bit and get him NFL ready.
Who better to help him then Andy Reid who was Brett Favre’s quarterback coach and Alex Smith, Mr. Game Manager.
Of course the Chiefs want the big plays, the downfield throws and even some big runs. They don’t however want the mistakes.
So it will take time.
Alex Smith is the starter this season and he also has a contract calling for another season if KC wants him back. It’s likely Mahomes will be the man in 2018, barring a super season from Smith or Mahomes falling short.
IAnd if KC does not get off to a good start this season, you can bet the quarterback controversy will begin.
The Chiefs badly need top linebackers, a running back and another wide out. They still have at least 6 more picks to get that done.
I spoke with former No. 1 Chiefs pick and former great Bill Mass yesterday hours before the draft. I told Bill I thought it would be a linebacker with all of ours in question, he said, “Craig I think the Chiefs are going quarterback in the first round,” and he was dead on.
Is Mahomes the exciting quarterback with the ‘It’ factor this team hasn’t seen since Len Dawson? Lets hope so.
I think it was time for this move; Alex is near the end and we need a young guy to take over and get the Chiefs to a Super Bowl.
And Mahomes could be that guy.
Food for thot: ‘with a name like Smuckers it has to be good’… with a name like Pat he should’ve gone to New England, said the riposte to the ad line. Instead, Pat Mahomes becomes a Chief… time to jam, or yet another #1 piece of draft toast KC?
Has any texas tech qb (the gunslingers made it in nfl)?
Here are some of the best TT qb’s….not much to see here….they can throw the ball in college but maybe you’ve heard of one or two but never much of anything in nfl@!
Sonny Cumbie, Zebbi Lethridge, Joe Barnes,BJ Symons, Billy Tolliver, Robert Hall, Grahm Harrell, Kliff Kingsbury , Arbson, ….not impressive at all!!!!!
The qb position is so hard a position it takes both brains, and brawn to know where every player on both sides of the ball will be…….the chiefs don’t get it.
Clark still makes millions with a mediocre team.
Lenny was not a long ball thrower which is needed in nfl today. It was YAC that
made him great.
We still need speed at receiver corp….that’s the difference and one running back
not 4 who can get thru the few holes they get from our line.
I guess this choice give glazer more fodder for his off base and incorrect writings for another 5 years. Give alex the tools and we can be winners….the current chiefs don’t get it.
And I’m sure glazer won’t be around when the chiefs finally get to a super bowl.
It’s a fantasy dude. Clark wants the money to send down to dallas as kc waits
for a single penny from clarks (not the chiefs) billion dollar trust fund.
It’s an interesting pick. But it’s not the home run that people are making it out to be.
In the last ten years I think drafting a QB is harder then it’s ever been. Why? The spread offence. Inflated stats, guys who are shown to be system QB’s and a generation of guys who don’t know how to take the ball from center. Interesting times for NFL GM’s and HC’s.
Since 2007 these have been the best QB’s taken in the first round:
Matt Ryan 2007. Pro Style.
Joe Flacco 2007. Pro Style
Matthew Stafford 2009. Pro Style.
Cam Newton 2011. Spread run first system.
Andrew Luck 2012. Pro Style
See a pattern there? Sure there have been pro style bust as well as spread successes. Dak Prescott anyone. But more often then not if I had the choice between the spread QB and the pro style QB, give me the guy who has taken the ball from center sometime in his life.
Last years draft is a great example of the differences between pro and spread style QB’s. Right now the Rams are requesting not taking the pro style QB Carson Wentz in stead of the spread style QB Jared Goff.
Patrick Mahomes is a project. A very expensive project. I wasn’t all that impressed with them in the games I saw. And hopefully his dad wont be an issue. But as with most draft picks wait five years and then grade the pick. See you in 2021.
Alex Smith was so angry with the pick that he tried to throw the remote across the room at the TV, but instead he dumped it off to the coffee table.
It’s amazing. I haven’t been here in months and this idiot is still typing and getting printed on this site. The 3rd “sentence” here proves everyone’s theory you have little to no working brain cells left. Steve Fuller is considered one of the top backup quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL. He has a super bowl ring largely due to the 5 games he started for the Bears. How are so remarkably ignorant?
As I wrote and repeat Steve Fuller as a starting NFL quarterback for KC was a bust…thanks hater DICK.
Good God you are so slow. I wish I could type in crayon for you. You never once said anything about “starting” or “KC”. Reread what you typed half-wit.
Recall back in 1966, the Chiefs drafted a rookie RB Mike Garrett, who brought a new element to the team: speed and shiftiness. Coupled with second-year WR Otis Taylor, Hank Stram said “we used to travel by bus but now with Mike & Otis we travel by jet.”
50 years later, Mahomes brings something to KC almost non-existent comparison our QB’s the past: a machine gun. He has (cue football’s love affair military terminology) a ‘cannon arm’… Chiefs haven’t had one since the days an few short years Pete Beathard 1964-1967, who could really throw the ‘bomb’. KC had one other guy with a ‘howitzer’, one Mike Nott who in his one & only year got into his one & only game that ended one short career which most Chiefs fans probably don’t even recall.
The 1960’s, Kerouac’s fave Chiefs were Dawson and Taylor, former the most accurate passer in the game along with his Packers peer. What Lenny was not: a Gabriel or an Sonny Jurgensen: he was Starr to their Namath’s. The case Otis, great as he was, had he played in the passing offenses guys like Alworth, Biletnikoff and Maynard did, #89 would’ve produced gaudier stats, and likely Hall of Fame enshrinement if perhaps no ‘World Championship’ his resume, that the trade-off/rub, as it were (old timers in KC may recall Taylor fans used to rip Dawson, their belief that Lenny didn’t throw the ball enough to elevate Otis star even higher.)
Tho a ‘team’ game, fact is there have been many QB’s with rifle arms over the years but very few have won a ‘World Championship’ or multiples, comparison ‘the technicians’ that position. ‘Gunslingers’ have been many over the years yet results pale comparison ‘field general’ types.
Hall of Fame QB’s Starr, Dawson & Unitas 1950’s-60’s’s and a Baugh & Graham even earlier, led teams that won or participated multiple Championships/Games. ‘Rocket’ armed types such as Elway & Favre may have been more fun to watch than Griese or Staubach for some, yet more recent soft-tossers Montana & Brady got better results.
So Bradshaw to Manning, Namath to Brees and Marino to Aikman if you please, the audience decides the more aesthetically pleasing. Kerouac’s opine, Daryle Lamonica and Jeff George remain the most impressive ‘looking’ throwing motions any QB’s my memory; most often however, artistic beauty wins not the prize.
Upshot: Mahomes brings the ‘arm’… can he deliver the ‘World Championship’? That will be the expectation placed upon him, fair or not.
Did Bill Mass lift weights to build more Maas?
No clue what you mean…
Ah Maas not Mass…I see…thank you.
“In a draft day shocker the Chiefs traded up to the 10th spot on, giving up several draft picks to Cleveland and took Texas Tech‘s Patrick Mahomes.”
While I tend to agree with The Scribe about the worthiness of the pick and look forward to seeing Mahomes under center (in a couple of years), The Scribe has made an error in that the Chiefs did not trade picks to Cleveland to move up and draft Mahomes. They traded with Buffalo, the same team that defeated the Chiefs in the 1994 title game that was previously referenced. If Mahomes turns out to be a bust, it will be an interesting bit of symmetry that Buffalo beat us regarding two of our most famous post-Blackledge quarterback aquisitions.
I stand corrected it was the Bills not the Browns…get them mixed up my mistake…