Mahomes struggling without Nagy?

legendxofxlink

legendxofxlink

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When there's usually fluff piece after fluff piece, it seems KC is different...
The Kansas City Chiefs earned plenty of praise when handing the starting quarterback job to Patrick Mahomes this offseason after just one start.

Despite the universal acclaim, the young Padawan still has several steps to take before becoming a Jedi Knight.

Andy Reid and the Chiefs coaching staff have thrown the kitchen sink at their new starter during offseason practices. During Thursday's OTA session open to the media, Mahomes struggled, completing just 4 of 15 passes with an interception in a full-squad session. He went 7 for 12 with an INT in 7-on-7 drills, per ESPN's Adam Teicher.

Normally we'd scoff at tracking completion percentage and interceptions during OTAs. In the Chiefs' case, however, it's instructive in how much the coaching staff is putting on Mahomes' plate, knowing he must run the offense at full capacity come September if K.C. is to return to the playoffs.

"[Coaches] have really tried to throw a lot at the whole offense," Mahomes said Thursday, brushing off his struggles, via the team's official website. "If you want to make mistakes you make them now. You don't want to make those mistakes in the game so we throw a lot now so when we get to the game it's a lot easier."

Reid likewise dismissed Mahomes' practice struggles as part of the process of getting the new quarterback up to speed.

"No, and I've mentioned this to you guys before when Alex [Smith] was here and so on, these are camps where you want to test," Reid said when asked if the interceptions were worrisome. "We throw in a lot of new stuff so you want to test what you can get away with in these camps, so you're going to have interceptions. That doesn't bother me. If you repeat it, now that's a problem but you want to test it and see what you can get away with. That's all a part of the way this thing works."

Mahomes garnered nearly widespread praise for his singular outing in 2017, in which he completed 22 of 33 passes for 284 yards with one interception. The big-armed quarterback showed some 'wow' throws and flashed the traits that caused the Chiefs to leap up in the first round to select him last year. Ultimately, it was that game that made Reid and the Chiefs comfortable transitioning from Smith to the youngster.

Offseason practices aren't used only for testing a young QB's limits. Coaches also need to discern what Mahomes does well to tailor the playbook to his skill set.

"I want him to be exposed to things and that's what you do," Reid said. "Then you work with it and put your personality on these different things. Try to find the things that he's best at, work the offense around him like we did with Alex. We worked the offense around Alex and built it around him and now it's this kid's turn and you have to kind of feel that part out. He's gonna keep firing and that's all we want, and learning, it's a great time for that. That's what this is all about right here."

Mahomes' struggles in the spring shouldn't be taken as a precursor to problems in autumn. They should simply be used as a reminder -- a soft break on the hype train, if you will -- that we shouldn't assume the transition from Smith to Mahomes won't have some bumps along the way.
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hebs

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I feel like I've heard stuff like this in the past about other QBs and the talk is always... it's too early... or they're trying out new stuff. TBH, I feel like most of the time those QBs still don't turn out to be great. Who knows though. How much new can they be throwing at him honestly? He's been in the system for a year now. What were they having him do last year? Run the scout team? The guy has a ridiculous cannon and I hope he turns out to be good. The league needs an injection of quality young QB's to take over the reigns as some of the leagues best will be gone within the next 5 years.
 
onebud34

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KC has been fleeced.
 
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The only thing I take from this is that too much was made from his game last year. A few of us said that he missed a lot of reads but got some results from that arm. Something else about Mahomes is that he very accurate, until he isn't. The odd one gets away from him. Not a lot, but enough. I don't know if that's been corrected or correctable without changing his motion but I also don't know it isn't.

All that said, it's early. I expect him to have success at this level but like with Mitch, it won't happen overnight. He should actually be ahead of shark boy as he's been in that O for a year and had plenty of play before going to KC but I suspect they will be on relatively equal footing come game day. While he hasn't had as many live reps, he's got a lot more looks in practice and film on how that O works and a D reacts. From there it will only be about how well they play going forward. While I liked Mahomes coming out, I liked Mitch better and still do.
 
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hebs said:
I feel like I've heard stuff like this in the past about other QBs and the talk is always... it's too early... or they're trying out new stuff. TBH, I feel like most of the time those QBs still don't turn out to be great. Who knows though. How much new can they be throwing at him honestly? He's been in the system for a year now. What were they having him do last year? Run the scout team? The guy has a ridiculous cannon and I hope he turns out to be good. The league needs an injection of quality young QB's to take over the reigns as some of the leagues best will be gone within the next 5 years.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I think the current problem is above his arm. Maybe they intentionally tried to throw him off so he'd work that much harder. Nagy himself said it took KC 5 years to fully install that O and that's with some player consistency. Even Wentz, who played at a very high level, understood being under center and had a full year in it, was not always taking the right options and running way too much for that O. (he was on a 400 yd clip, think Randall Cunningham) It worked great until it didn't.

Imagine every player on O learning it at the same time and you have the Bear. Mitch has got an uphill battle but I expect him to run that hill and hopefully a bit less during the game. One thing that looks like has been drilled into him is to protect himself by sliding and using OB. I hope that continues.
 
hebs

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I admit I don't know enough about him to know if he relies on his arm too much and tends to throw to an open man (Classic Cutty style) instead of being a rhythm and timing guy. I'll have to go back and watch some more games of his to check.

Ok, I went back and watched a few of his 2016 season games. He definitely wasn’t a rhythm guy in college. Actually reminds me of Cutler. Randomly sails balls past their target even when not under pressure, late in his throws, and has a crazy fastball. If anyone can fix him tho, it’s Andy Reid.
 
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Speed

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That kid was also a pretty big project. Feet are so important for QB's and he had some of the worst from a top rated QB prospect in recent memory. He had the natural accuracy and timing down despite the issues in college(Plus playing in the Big 12 in an Air Raid scheme doesn't hurt), but the league is different. Ultimately I think he'll be fine in Reid's hands
 
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This is a Bears MB. Shouldn't we be talking about Trubisky's struggles w/Nagy?
 
Bearly

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We will... when he has some.
 
Toast88

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Just as any doom-saying is way overblown at this point, so is the near universal praise that he received after ONE friggin’ start, a start in which he made plenty of mistakes, probably should have been INT’d more than he was, continually didn’t see open guys and had terrible footwork—and still had a pretty damn good stat line. There’s a lot to like with the guy, and he’s obviously got a ton of talent. But all the OTA stuff and his first start show is that it’s super early and his journey will be long.

Hard for me to think he’s going to be a bust, because he’s got plenty of talent for Andy Reid—a hell of a coach—to work with. But just based on what we know and how he was coming out of college, I’ll go ahead and #CallIt and say he never has a season as good as Alex Smith. Here in KC, the fan base thinks they’ll automatically win 10-11 games this year, as per usual. I don’t see how they win more than 8 this year at the most, and it goes way beyond Patrick Mahomes.
 
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