Best thing I've seen from him mechanically so far?

Not a lock-legged passer.

Those 4 throws all gave him space to set and throw. All four of them were different 'styles' of passes. And on none of them did he lock that front leg and try to 'feather' his pass in. He had a great 'athletic' base for all of them and it allowed his hips to come through clean and drive the ball. If your front leg is locked out, your back leg has nowhere to put the energy and you end up fighting against yourself. But on that third throw especially you can see him drive off the back leg and the front leg 'absorbs' the inertia as his hips power through; his back leg drives his front leg into lock rather than that leg starting there and pushing against it. It's just a perfect display of using your lower half to create power in your back/arm.

That's why he can put such good velocity on the ball and it should help him in some of those occasions where he has rushers coming straight into his lower half. He can absorb those hits a little better.
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Jesus...look at that third throw. That's just a bullet man.

Hey, I don't hate Alex and I think there are things he can teach Pat Mahomes (don't make that throw to the sideline you made after your interception was overturned, for instance; that was a pissed throw where he was trying to swing his dick around. Unwise).

But if Alex tries to teach Mahomes something on a play like the third one it would be like Alex Gordon trying to teach Vlad Guerrero how to lay off pitches in the dirt. Vlad doesn't have to - he can hit the fuck out of that pitch.

Alex Smith simply cannot physically do what Mahomes can do there - there are no lessons for Mahomes to learn there because they're playing a different ballgame. Smith would tell him to hit Travis underneath to pick up 4 and set yourself up for 2nd down. And for Alex Smith, that might be the right play because Smith can't put a missile in traffic like that. He'd have to float it a bit to get it there and Kemp might get blown to fuck by the dude he was able to bounce off of instead.

They're just so very different that it's hard to know what exactly Smith can do to help Mahomes improve. There are things Mahomes can try that Smith can't.
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Mahomes to Hill is going to be something special. Cannot wait.
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When he sets his feet and wants to throw a dart it gets there in a hurry.

Arm strength is underrated as a QB tool.
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I'm actually more intrigued by what he can do over the middle than I am by what he can do downfield.

Those 12-15 yard hitches and inside digs are plays that the timing has to be absolutely perfect on with Smith. Any kind of hiccup can fuck those up.

Meanwhile Mahomes has the firepower to simply throw it past a DB before he can react.

So Conley, for instance, doesn't need as much separation because the ball can get on him so quickly that he's just open even when he doesn't appear to be. Kelce can get it a little quicker and use his YAC skills just that much better.

This will do more than just make the streaks and screens work better; it will make the middle of the field that much easier to operate in and that much more productive.
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Yeah, people saw so many guys like Boller fail that they forget what arm strength means. They went too far the other direction and suddenly arm strength was a throwaway. It isn't - it's very important and it increases your margin for error a great deal.

I did the math on Mahomes vs. Watson and Mahomes velocity meant that a 15 yard out gets to the WR 4 ft ahead of a pass thrown by Watson. That would be roughly .15 seconds. That's easily enough to be the difference between a completion and a pick.

Think of how badly we crush a WR for running a 4.64 instead of a 4.49. That .15 seconds can be huge for a QB. Especially when you realize that the WR is catching a pass from him that would still be a full arm's length + away if thrown by Smith.

Additionally, the harder you have to throw it, the less accurate you are. When Mahomes can get it there without having to 'max effort' the throw, it's going to be that much more accurate.

Arm strength isn't the end all, be all - but it's a damn good thing to have. It's still extremely important.
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Who has as strong an arm as Pat in the NFL right now?

Rodgers? Jameis Winston? Anyone else I'm forgetting?
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Cutler but he is a loser.
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Bottom line:

The sooner you start Mahomes, the sooner KC gets to the big show.

And STAYS at that level.

But hey, if you REALLY need another year of proof that Smith is a time-wasting, monkey-fucking kumquat, I'm more than happy to let you wallow in your ignorance while Clay absolutely DESTROYS Smith's KC legacy gif after beautiful gif.
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We didn't see much of it, but Mahomes appears to be incredibly accurate on screen passes as well, including those thrown to a forward moving target. It seems like a small thing, but it's awesome to know you don't have to worry about his accuracy or touch.
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I think we learned about locked front legs at the same time
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Cam and Stafford
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Strafford
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Paxton Lynch :-) kidding
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Probably.

I saw an interview with Casserly (IIRC) around draft season in 2016 where he briefly discussed it and thought it was interesting so I did a little reading about it and spent last season looking for it in Smith and other guys I watched play.

Had never thought to look for it prior to that and it was really fascinating once you knew what you were seeing. In fact, I noted at the time that I always kinda noticed it but diagnosed it wrong (I first saw it in Geno but didn't attribute it to his front leg; I thought it was a mechanical quirk attributable to stiff hips; knew I didn't like it before I knew it was a thing - funny how that works).

It's really pretty important when you're looking for a guy that can power the football.
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