Hell, the Bears GM had Mahomes #2 on his board behind Trubisky. If that Bears GM had decent instincts, Chicago ends up with Mahomes.

What I will never understand (and maybe I'm extremely biased) is how anyone could look at the college career of those two guys and think Trubisky was better. Mahomes had way more experience and showed better talent on tape. He's a more natural football player, period. This wasn't some rocket science that needed to be figured out. Look at the college tape, it's there.

Perhaps the best thing that happened for Kansas City was Jared Goff going #1 from the Air Raid system and then looking like a MEGA BUST in the 2016 season, right before Mahomes would be under scrutiny for the 2017 draft. The whole "system" thing was everyone's silly attempt to talk themselves out of Mahomes being a super special talent at QB.

Bears GM must have fallen for the "system" nonsense with Mahomes, while failing to realize that Trubisky's lack of experience and lack of natural playmaking ability WOULD be a problem at the NFL level.
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Everything about this is spot on.

All i had to do was watch 5 minutes of Mahomes' college tape and it was obvious he had superstar potential.

I think all the GMs just completely outsmarted themselves on him. "He can't be this good. There has to be some explanation that won't translate to the pro level." He is that good and it was right there on the tape the whole time.

Executives simply refused to believe their own eyes.
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I am glad that eventually a good number of smart football people did see it. For Tech people, it blew our minds that he was projected to be a 3rd round pick. I remember one Tech guy flat out said, "He'll be a Top 10 pick" even though everyone in the media kept saying 3rd round type of player.

Kyle Shanahan's excuse for passing on him is that he thought he would get Kirk Cousins in free agency. That's pretty damn funny. Meanwhile you had Andy Reid and Sean Payton actively trying to dump better QB's than Cousins to get Mahomes.

It would have been very interesting to see what might happen with Mahomes in New Orleans. How long would Brees be able to hold him off? Brees had a MVP level season in 2018, but Mahomes was flat out better. Would Sean Payton have given him the chance to play?
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I think coaching staffs and scouts from teams looked at Mahomes and didn't know what the hell to do with him. They were so entrenched in their conventional scouting wisdom when it came to QBs that where everybody could see the big plays, all they saw were the unnatural parts of his style that produced those plays and simply assumed it wouldn't ever work in the pros.

So many ex-scouts and ex-coaches on TV said shit like:

"Well, he needs to eliminate those throws across his body...

"Yeesh, he's got no footwork, we have GOT to get him to learn proper 3, 5, and 7 step drops. So that's gonna take a couple years of development..."

"He has no consistent throwing platform, and until he gets one, the guy is going to throw a ton of INTs"

"I don't see any indication he can play in a pro system without resorting to sandlot football tricks that will be snuffed out by NFL defenses."

"He could be outstanding, but the bust potential on him is too much. You typically spend Day 2 or even Day 3 picks on a QB like that."

I'll betcha anything Telesco wasn't lying when he said he really thought about drafting Mahomes, but he was just too confined to his established sensibilities, all of which told him, "Is this the appropriate time to be taking a huge risk like that?" He had never seen anything like him in his years of experience, and everything he had learned in his career had gotten him this far, where he was regarded as one of the league's best GMs. So why should he stop trusting that experience in this particular case? Rivers had some years left... there would be other QBs in future years they could draft... they were in the middle of a plan to get Rivers some weapons so he could get the Chargers back to winning again...

He went with the safe option. And in return for his reasoned, smart, sensible approach, he let any hope of winning a Super Bowl over the next ~15 years die a slow, horrible death.
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Biggest issue for me with him coming out was his trash footwork. Thought me might throw off platform, without a solid base, and off his back foot a lot.

Turns out that ended up being one of his greatest attributes.
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In a way, I felt that was even stronger evidence of his ability and potential. If he could be (arguably) more accurate throwing the ball than a bunch of the other college QB's who had perfect footwork/mechanics, then what did this say about Pat's natural ability? I think the kid has always had amazing natural accuracy and that's why the footwork stuff just does not matter as much for him as it does for 99.99% of the other QB's.
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What physical techniques and mechanics of playing the QB position have Reid and company actually coached Mahomes on? Like what "bad habit" did he do in college that got fixed under Reid and his coaching staff? Or what did he not know how to do that he learned in the NFL?

Taking snaps from under center. That's the only one I've got, and that's only because Gruden drew attention to it in Pat's QB camp episode.

Obviously Reid's coaching goes beyond shit like, "Well, if you would practice this drill, you'd get less resistance from your shoulder and give you more control in throwing the ball blah blah blah..." I'm just talking about mechanics only
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I think along side taking the snap under center is the proper motion for his drop back, which comically was one of the things that Alex Smith was elite at. Clean, disciplined drop backs. Pat got to spend a year learning from the best at that trait.
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Alex was the perfect guy to help Mahomes learn for a year. Alex was good enough to be a Top 10 QB in the league at the time, but he wasn't some first ballot Hall of Famer who was going to prevent Mahomes from getting a chance to step on the field. Favre blocked Aaron Rodgers for 3 years. I suspect the same might have happened to Mahomes with Drew Brees in New Orleans.

KC was the perfect spot for Mahomes to land. Alex being a super smart guy would have been helpful in the film room for Patrick as well. It was a great redshirt year for him. Gave him a chance to heal a number of college injuries while he learned from Alex, Andy, Kafka, and others.
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Pat was gonna be in New Orleans if we didn’t trade up, and it would have been good for him having Payton and Thomas/Kamara + good OL.

But Andy is the best in the world and Pat would not be near as good without him. There is not a better situation in history for a rookie QB to step into than Pat did.
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thing is, as Patrick ages, I'll bet you see him clean that up.

Right now, he can get away with all kinds of crazy shit. When he hits his mid-30's, there's likely to be a little drop off with the natural velocity. And he's a smart kid, unlike a Favre who never learned, just kept chucking it however.

I'd bet Patrick makes the transition, just like a fireballing MLB pitcher who loses a little on his fastball, so he starts working the breaking stuff at the corners.
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I've heard accuracy and release time as things you can't coach (and arm strength obviously). I've never heard footwork as something you can't coach.
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can we at least worry about the next five years and our longest consecutive run in SB wins first :-)
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Well, let's keep in mind that mahomes had a brilliant stretch this year where he struggled to throw off his back foot. He can certainly do it. Hes cleaned up his footwork a ton. For me, it's more that he will get better and better at reading defenses so he doesn't need to improv as much.
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