Why the Chiefs Knew Patrick Mahomes Would Be Special During His Rookie Season

Patrick Mahomes' greatness was recognized in Kansas City before he became the Chiefs' starting quarterback. 

In an interview with FS1's "First Things First," Chiefs owner Clark Hunt shared that Mahomes was making plays in practice that amazed him and general manager Brett Veach, with one of the plays being a no-look pass by the star quarterback.

"Periodically, [Veach] would send me a clip from practice of Patrick doing special stuff," Clark said. "He sent me this one and the headline said, ‘No look pass.’ I was like, ‘What’s a no-look pass in football? I know what it is in basketball.’ Sure enough, it was Patrick in practice, looking one way and throwing the ball the other way and completing it. 

"Of course, we would later see him do that against the Baltimore Ravens in an important game later in the 2018 season. It’s just amazing. Then, almost every week we saw him do something where you said, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that before on a football field.’"

After sitting behind Alex Smith during his rookie season in 2017, Mahomes took the league by storm when he became the Chiefs' starting quarterback in 2018. He made jaw-dropping plays seemingly every week that year, just like the throw that Clark mentioned. On that play, Mahomes had his eyes dart toward the middle of the field before throwing a 16-yard completion to Demarcus Robinson as he was running toward the left sideline. 

While Mahomes didn't become the Chiefs' full-time starter until 2018, he did make a start at the end of his rookie season. His stat line in his first start (284 yards, one interception) against the Denver Broncos wasn't all too impressive, but Clark said that he "certainly looked like somebody who was going to be a very good NFL quarterback in that