Saints, and Chiefs had Mahomes as their number 1 QB. Saints were going to take him at 11. To say that nobody knew how good he would be is irrelevant when 3 of the best franchises in the NFL had him as the best QB in the draft.
Saints coach Sean Payton recently peeled the curtain back with his thoughts on the 2018 quarterback class.
profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
Meh. I don't believe half the stuff said about drafts
either before picks like "The Browns are itching to move up to take Trubisky"
nor after picks including "I would have picked Mahomes" after the fact.
Possibly true but none of it is here nor there when considering Pace moved up to be SURE he got HIS QB and he flubbed it.
I didn't have a problem with the trade-up then and I actually still don't. If he had picked Mahomes or even Watson, none of us would be reasonably complaining.