KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Earlier this season, Matt Nagy, the Chiefs’ quarterbacks coach, made an unusual statement.
Oftentimes, the quarterbacks coach of an NFL team has to spend more time ensuring that the passer understands the rules of what he should and shouldn’t do when he is outside of the pocket than the usual inside-the-pocket fundamentals. Nagy, however, has Patrick Mahomes, the league’s most-talented quarterback. This season, Nagy has worked to improve and maintain Mahomes’ footwork and lower-body fundamentals when inside the pocket. The reason for such, Nagy explained, is simple: He has the league’s best outside-of-the-pocket passer.
“Defensive coordinators, I know, because I was a part of it (as a head coach the previous four years with the Chicago Bears) and heard them talk, do get scared to death when he’s outside of the pocket because he just makes so many plays happen,” Nagy said of Mahomes last month. “He’s comfortable.”
Trade away superstar receiver Tyreek Hill, the league’s fastest player, to the Miami Dolphins. Replace Hill and his impressive production with a collection of new receivers, all of whom are playing their first season in Kansas City, players such as JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Justin Watson, Kadarius Toney and rookie Skyy Moore.
In his sixth season, Mahomes can still manipulate an opposing defense and generate highlights with his scrambling ability, rare arm strength and improvisational skills. Entering Sunday’s showdown between the Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals, a rematch of last season’s AFC Championship Game, Mahomes has the league’s most touchdown passes (29). Seven of Mahomes’ 30 total touchdowns have occurred after he has moved out of the pocket, a statistic, according to TruMedia and Pro Football Focus, that also leads the league.
“You never want to take that away from him,” Nagy said of Mahomes. “He’s got a gift that not many people have. You can see magical things happen.”
Most of the Chiefs’ memorable wins this season — in a rally over the Las Vegas Raiders, an overtime victory over the Tennessee Titans and a revengeful blowout win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — have included such a play from Mahomes. He might need to produce a highlight or two outside the pocket against the Bengals, whose defense was effective last season against him by dropping eight defenders into coverage, a tactic that can force the quarterback to extend plays to have success.
“I honestly don’t think about running until I have to,” Mahomes said Wednesday. “I try to do whatever I can to throw the ball down the field. With all of the coverages that we’re getting, and they’re trying to take away guys with man coverages, it’s going to open up those (running) lanes. I try not to overdo it.”
Mahomes is correct. In the previous two seasons, he created the most out-of-the-pocket plays (350) in the league, almost 70 more than Buffalo’s Josh Allen (282), who ranked second. Of course, Mahomes led all quarterbacks with 30 touchdowns while committing seven turnovers (which also ranked first) and being sacked 16 times (sixth), according to TruMedia.
Nagy praised Mahomes for his elevated discretion this season of knowing when to extend plays — and when to avoid a mistake when not in the pocket — to be an even more efficient quarterback. Justin Fields, the Chicago Bears’ quarterback, and Daniel Jones, the quarterback of the New York Giants, have more snaps out of the pocket than Mahomes. Those quarterbacks have been sacked a combined 27 times. Mahomes, though, has yet to be sacked this season in such situations. He has thrown just two interceptions while accounting for a league-leading 43 first downs.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to like throwing from the pocket more,” said the 27-year-old Mahomes, who, yes, leads the league with 23 touchdown passes from within the pocket. “When I was younger, I liked to scramble around and make a ton of different throws. I can still do it.”
Mahomes also has one of the league’s best offensive lines. The Chiefs are atop the league in pass block win rate, winning 74 percent of the time — by sustaining their blocks for 2.5 seconds or longer — according to player tracking data from NFL Next Gen Stats.
But when Mahomes does begin to scramble, just about all of his teammates have certain rules they are asked to execute, often within less than a second, by their superstar quarterback.
One of the triggers for Mahomes is right tackle Andrew Wylie. If the opposing edge rusher wants to use his speed rush to try to get around Wylie, who is listed at 6-foot-5 and 304 pounds, Mahomes will run through the lane between Wylie and right guard Trey Smith. Such a moment occurred in the fourth quarter against the Titans when Mahomes recognized man-to-man coverage and sprinted to the right to score on a 14-yard scramble.
“Certain teams bring out certain types of rush patterns to flush him out of the pocket on purpose,” Wylie said. “We have to diagnose that and just stay between your man and (Mahomes) to give him a clean release.”
When Mahomes scrambled near the right sideline in the victory over the Buccaneers, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who caught the improvisational 2-yard touchdown pass, knew to move to the back corner of the end zone to better position himself to be available for his quarterback’s vision.
“These guys work at it,” offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said earlier this month. “If there’s anything Pat wants to approach and discuss, he’ll make sure that we’ll have that discussion about it with the players. They’ve done a heck of a job. There’s been so many of them over the past few weeks. These guys understand exactly where they are supposed to fit.”
The perfect example, Bieniemy said, happened in one of the most critical moments of the season.
In overtime against the Titans, the Chiefs elected to have Mahomes roll out of the pocket and to his right in an attempt to convert on a third-and-inches play. The Titans, though, were ready, as they, in man-to-man coverage, forced Mahomes to extend the play. The last and farthest passing option for Mahomes was Noah Gray, the second-year tight end who ran a corner route. When Mahomes changed directions, moving from right to left, so did Gray, who ran to the middle of the field to create separation against rookie cornerback Roger McCreary. Gray’s 27-yard reception put the Chiefs in range for kicker Harrison Butker to make the game-winning field goal.
Throughout November, several of the Chiefs’ new receivers have shown that they can recognize the coverage of the opposing defense and adjust the routes in the proper manner when Mahomes exits the pocket. Nine of the last 15 completions Mahomes has made when not in the pocket have been caught by either Smith-Schuster, Watson, Toney and Moore.
In fact, Smith-Schuster’s first touchdown reception with the Chiefs was on such a play. He stopped running his crossing route, instead staying in the middle of the field against the Buffalo Bills when he saw that Mahomes had scrambled to the right. Doing what most quarterbacks are coached not to do, Mahomes threw across his body to connect with Smith-Schuster, who scored a 42-yard touchdown.
“I knew that the middle linebacker was going to get out,” Smith-Schuster said after the game. “I’ve been working with Pat, and I know a play never ends. I’ve been building that chemistry with him. I’ve seen what (Mahomes) and (superstar tight end) Travis (Kelce) have and how they work every day. I’m trying to get to that point.”
In addition to the production Mahomes generates with his improvising highlights, another major factor, Wylie said, is the cumulative impact those plays, both mentally and physically, have on opposing defenders. When the Chiefs have celebrated a touchdown or a pivotal first down, Wylie has seen defenders become emotionally deflated after expending so much energy in an unsuccessful attempt to stop Mahomes.
“He truly is a special athlete,” Wylie said of Mahomes. “You’ve got to defend just a massive area of the field on the backend. For those D-linemen, they have to run further and they have to give more effort. I’m sure that has an effect on them.”
Injury update
Smith-Schuster (illness), Toney (strained hamstring) and running back Jerick McKinnon (strained hamstring) didn’t participate in Wednesday’s practice.
“He is getting better,” Reid said of Toney, who missed last week’s game, his sixth of the season.
Safety Deon Bush (elbow) was a limited participant. After not playing Sunday, left guard Joe Thuney (ankle) and safety Juan Thornhill (calf) were full participants.
